Bill Hunter is Coordinator, Educational Technology, Graduate Division of Educational Research, at The University of Calgary. He has been Director of the Education Technology Unit and head of the Department of Teacher Education. He is currently the chair of the university's Learning and Instructional Development Subcommittee which is charged with the responsibility for promoting instructional improvement. Bill serves on the editorial boards of several research journals including two on-line journals and Well-Connected Educator, an internet-based service for technology-using teachers. His current research interests focus on issues of educational telecommunications, especially the on-line preparation of on-line teachers, and on the evaluation of educational technology. Bill also does research on adult moral reasoning and has recently published two articles on the (mis)application of chaos theory to education. His earlier work focused on issues in educational measurement and program evaluation.
Both Mike Dobson and Janet McCracken, and their family, returned to the UK at the end of July 1999. Both were sorry to leave the UofC and wish success to all their friends in the learning technologies effort. Mike took up a position at the Centre for Studies in Advanced Learning Systems at the University of Lancaster and can be contacted by email at m.dobson@lancaster.ac.uk
Michael DobsonMike Dobson's research interests include models of learning and evaluation based on conversation theory, the identification of cognitive models for modality assignment, technology solutions to collaborative authoring of multimedia courseware at a distance, adaptive testing, interactive graphical representation systems for learning early logic and more recently, standardisation for personalised learning systems to be implemented as interactive web-based instruction and agent theory for advanced system integration. Mike Dobson has been involved in educational computing for almost 10 years. He has an MSc in Knowledge Based Systems specialising in intelligent tutoring from University of Sussex UK, and is completing a Ph.D. in Educational Technology from the Institute of Educational Technology in the UK. He hasworked on many projects including, designing open systems for collaborative authoring of courseware, integrating software for delivery of distance learning materials, adaptive testing models and interface design for minimalist tutoring systems. Mike has worked as a learning systems consultant for the Alberta Research Council, Minerva Technologies, The University of Calgary, the Teaching and Learning with Technology Program (TLTP), Imperial College of London and The Open University. Mike is an associate researcher with Dr. Tom Carey in the Canadian Networks of Centres of Excellence in TeleLearning (NCE-TL) of the CADRE (Collaborative Authoring and Design Resources) and CLARET (Case-study Library Architecture for Engaging TeleLearning) projects. Recently, Mike has been awarded a contract to evaluate and provide design consultancy to the Alberta Learning Enhancement Envelope project which will see the implementation of technology-based training on a large scale to all higher education institutions in Alberta. This project will investigate the integration, development and use of advanced and proprietary tools including ongoing efforts from NCE-TL research.
Janet McCracken was a Senior Research Evaluator for the Lessons Learned Project
at the University of Calgary. Prior to this, she was the Program Leader
of the Educational Technology group in the Advanced Computing Business Unit
of Alberta Research Council, responsible for personnel, technology and project
management for the group, as well as group and corporate administration and
marketing. She is also a part-time post-graduate student in the Institute of
Educational Technology at the British Open University in Milton Keynes. Her
research is focused on a qualitative method of describing and categorising student
conceptions and how this method can be applied to the instructional development
process. Ms. McCracken is an instructional designer of technology-based learning
systems, and has extensive experience in designing and developing instructional
programs for industry. Recent projects include providing design and evaluation
consultation to University of Calgary projects funded through the Alberta Advanced
Education and Career Development Learning Enhancement Envelope program, the
continued development and commercialisation of the Adaptive Multimedia Education
Enabler (AMEE) system. Past projects include the Distance Learning Toolkit which
involved developing a model for supporting synchronous communication between
tutors and learners in an application-sharing environment across ISDN, the design,
development and evaluation of an instructional system for visual discrimination
learning, and the application of artificial intelligence to training. She was
a member of the MLA's Technology and Integration Advisory Committee which made
recommendations to the Minister of Education on improving access to education
and creating greater efficiency in the system by using technology.