Sean J.C. Lancaster, Ph.D.•Associate Professor•College of Education •Grand Valley State University (public university in Michigan with 24,000+ students -- 8th best public university that grants Master's degrees -- midwest rankings from USNWR 2009) •Technology Coordinator for the undergraduate education program (largely ED 205 - 400 to 500 students each semester) |
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| 2006 Pew Teaching with Technology award winner | |
Office: 616.331.6650 / 618C Eberhard Center |
My family went hiking in Canada (Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario) and found a neat resting spot at the top of a waterfall (5 photos stitched together in Photoshop):
I currently coordinate an undergraduate course for preservice educators designed to help these instructors better integrate technology into their teaching. We have about 17 sections of this course offered per semester and all but about 3 or 4 of these sections are offered online. Even our face to face sections are hybrid courses with much instruction taking place online. When I became the coordinator of this course, none of the sections were online and I have made it a focus to develop a quality online version for our students. My doctoral work at the University of Kansas had an emphasis on the pedagogy of online instruction and I am using that foundation to help develop a high quality online learning experience for the students I teach using instructionally validated approaches from current research.
My current research is focused on online teaching and learning similar to the articles that appear in Innovate: A Journal of Online Education. I see such a broad variety on approaches to online instruction, not too unlike the broad approaches to face to face instruction. The difference is most face to face approaches have an extensive research base to support the varied approaches. Online instruction has generally been shown to be equivalent to face to face instruction, but I am looking at very specific teaching approaches to determine the effectiveness of these approaches for changing student dispositions. That is, how can online instruction best facilitate changing the future behavior of the students who complete the online course . . . And this is a struggle for all face to face instruction as well.
I have started an initiative to create a wiki-based textbook for the ED 205 sections at Grand Valley State University (about 450 - 500 students a semester). The project is in its infancy and is the focus of my sabbatical throughout the fall semester. I plan to develop this textbook in the mold of Wikipedia, but with a few extra restrictions. This textbook will be free for students and I will not make any profit from the use of this textbook, but the end result will be a textbook that can be easily updated annually to meet the latest demands of instructors who are teaching technology courses, so I benefit in this regard. My wife is also on sabbatical this fall and she is doing her work in Italy, so we will all be tagging along for a few months (along with our children).
I am big proponent of open source solutions. And, I do not have anything against commercial products; however, the audience I work with most often are educators and educators tend to have fewer funds available for resources. Combine the shrinking budgets with some high quality open source products emerging and I see no excuse for schools not to be evaluating and using open source solutions. For example, Firefox is probably the most popular open source product being used by the masses. Many people argue it is better than any commercially available product on the market. As you get more into online instruction, many other high quality products are available. I use Drupal in all of my online classes. Drupal is most commonly used for corporate websites, but it also has a healthy following from online educators. The nice thing about Drupal is that it comes with a basic set of features, but the Drupal development community is quite large and they have produced thousands of add-on modules to help each user individualize his/her installation to best meet the needs for that audience.
On a personal hobby note -- I am an avid tennis player. In fact, I went undefeated this past summer to win a men's league.
Lancaster, P. E., Schumaker, J. B., Lancaster, S. J. C., & Deshler, D. D. (in press). The efficacy of a computerized test-taking strategy: A field test with secondary students with high incidence disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly.
Lancaster, P. E. & Lancaster, S. J. C. "Strategic Tutoring Computerized Staff Development Program." Council for Exceptional Children, Boston, MA, April 2008.
Lancaster, S. J. C. "Wordsmith: A Computerized Vocabulary Program for Students with High-Incidence Disabilities." Council for Exceptional Children, Boston, MA, April 2008.
Topper, A., Lancaster, S. J. C., LaBeau, B. "Technology for Pre- and In-service Teachers." Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning, Grand Rapids, MI, March 2008.
Lancaster, P. E. & Lancaster, S. J. C. "Wordsmith." Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning, Grand Rapids, MI, March 2008.
Lancaster, S. J. C. & Lancaster, P. E. (2006). Technology shaping learner dispositions. The Knowledge Tree: An e-journal of learning innovation, 12, 8 - 19. Available online here.
Lancaster, P. E., Lancaster, S. J. C., Schumaker, J. B., & Deshler, D. D. (2006). The development and validation of a computerized test-taking strategy. Journal of Special Education Technology, 21(2). (Direct download of PDF here)
Lancaster, S. J. C. & Mellard, D. F. (2005). Adult learning disabilities screening using an internet-administered instrument. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal, 3(2), 62-73.
Lancaster, S., Donovan, J., Marsh, J. & Caterino, K. (2005). Learning with technology: A handbook for teachers. Boston MA: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. This is the 2nd edition and is the ED 205 textbook.
Many software titles are being released this year on which I am listed as being an author. These titles include Self-Advocacy for students with learning disabilities; Test-Taking for students with an LD; Wordsmith; FIRST-Letter Mnemonic CD-ROM; Concept Anchoring Routine Strategy for teachers, and more.
