Featured Experts

Susan Patrick | Dr. Patrick Dickson | Dr. Catherine Cavanaugh | Elizabeth Pape

Dr. Robert Blomeyer (Moderator)

Susan Patrick

Susan Patrick was named the President and Chief Executive Officer of the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) in September 2005. She is the former Director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education. As Director, she published the National Education Technology Plan, Toward a New Golden Age in American Education: How the Internet, the Law and Today's Students Are Revolutionizing Expectations in January 2005. She also managed the federal government's educational technology policies and produced two Secretary's Technology Leadership Summits: Empowering Accountability and Assessment Through Technology and Increasing Options through E-Learning. She served as Co-chair of the federal government's Advanced Technologies Working Group for Education and Training; and served as a member of the Secretary's Rural Education Task Force.

Susan Patrick has published articles and appeared on national news media such as CNN, Forbes, Newsweek, USA Today, US News and World Report, ABC News, NBC, CBS, Christian Science Monitor, CSPAN2, Computerworld, National Public Radio, Education Week, eSchool News, Converge, American School Board Journal, Educational Technology Journal and numerous other publications.

In the panel discussion, Patrick will represent a policy perspective on effective online learning.

Dr. Patrick Dickson

W. Patrick Dickson is a professor in the College of Education at Michigan State University. He received his B.S. in chemistry from Georgia Institute of Technology and his PhD from the School of Education at Stanford University. He is the Coordinator of the Ph.D. program in Learning, Technology, and Culture at Michigan State University. He teaches the capstone Web-based portfolio course in the Online Master of Arts in Education program and serves on the university's Instructional Computing and Technology Committee. His research interests include the influence of early environments on intellectual development, visualization of quantitative data, the origins of technological giftedness, and research on the use of real-time data to improve teaching and learning in online environments.

Dickson will share his research perspectives on online learning during the panel discussion.

Dr. Catherine Cavanaugh

Dr. Catherine Cavanaugh is assistant professor in curriculum and instruction at the University of North Florida. Her areas of expertise include instructional technology, distance education, and professional development. She has authored numerous papers, articles, and chapters and has edited books about K-12 online learning.

Cavanaugh has worked in teacher education and professional development for 9 years, specializing in instructional technology and science education. She was a grades 6-9 classroom teacher for 14 years, and is currently co-director of the Northeast Florida Science, Technology, and Mathematics Center for Education (NEFSTEM). Dr. Cavanaugh was Assistant Director of the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, and has done educational consulting in science and educational technology program development for school districts, the US Department of Energy, and colleges.

In the panel discussion, Cavanaugh will share her perspectives as a researcher. She recommends the following resources pertaining to online learning:

Liz Pape

Liz Pape is the CEO of VHS, Inc., a non-profit collaborative of high schools across the U.S. and abroad offering Internet-based courses to high school students in VHS member schools. She has a B.A in Economics and an MBA. For the past fourteen years she has been involved in education, as a technology specialist, as the grant administrator for the Virtual High School Technology Innovation Challenge Grant, and now as the CEO of VHS, Inc.

Liz has shared her expertise in K–12 online education, speaking nationally at numerous education and technology conferences, including the National Education Summit, the American Association of School Administrators, the Association of Supervisors and Curriculum Developers, the National School Board Association and National Educational Computing Conference and has written nationally about online education. She currently serves on the U.S. Department of Education National Online Education Policy Forum, the NCREL Blue Ribbon Panelist for Online Education, the Blackboard K-12 Advisory Board and is a founding board member of the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL).

During the panel discussion, Pape will share her experience and views from the perspective of providers of online learning services.

Dr. Robert L. Blomeyer

Dr. Robert L. Blomeyer, Jr. is a Senior Program Associate in the NCREL Center for Technology at Learning Point Associates. Previously, he was an associate professor in the National College of Education at National-Louis University (NLU) in Chicago. During his five years at NLU, he taught a variety of graduate-level classes on the integration of technologies with teaching and learning in the NLU Technology in Education Program.

At Learning Point Associates, Blomeyer has contributed to reviews of literature on e-learning and e-collaboration. He is a co-author and contributor to recent meta-analysis projects that include Cavanaugh et al examination of the effects of K-12 online learning on student academic performance (2004) and the new Pearson et al meta-analysis examining the effects of technology use on reading performance in the middle grades (2005). Dr. Blomeyer is project manager on a large-scale research project at NCREL, sponsoring eight new quantitative studies on K-12 Online Learning. He is co-author on the report from that project entitled: "A Synthesis of New Research On K-12 Online Learning."

Blomeyer will moderate the panel discussion.