Robin Rider – Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Science Education

Dionna Manning – Distance Education Coordinator, College of Education

Robin Rider and Dionna Manning both attended the 2005 IASTED International Conference on Computers and Advanced Technology in Education in Oranjestad, Aruba, August 28-31, 2005. Rider and Manning presented a session paper entitled Defining Best Practices in Distance Professional Development:  Lessons Learned from a National Videoconferencing Project in which they discussed their work in a collaborative NSF funded project with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  The project, REVITALISE, is a four-year program held with two cohorts of middle and high school teachers of mathematics and science, designed to address the issues of retention and renewal particularly in rural communities.  The principal investigator for the grant is Dr. Marilyn Sheerer.  REVITALISE focuses on educators in rural Illinois and North Carolina with the goal of introducing technologies that will reduce teacher isolation and stimulate virtual learning.  Robin Rider is the project director and Dionna Manning is the project coordinator.