Dr. Resta a Panelist at Technology-in-Education Town Hall Discussion & Documentary Debut - April 2, 2007

Dr. Paul E. Resta, Director of the Learning Technology Center and Professor of Instructional Technology in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, recently was invited by Microsoft to be on a panel of education experts tasked with addressing the question, “How can industry and education partner to help students compete on a global stage?”

 

The town hall discussion took place on The University of Texas at Austin campus and accompanied the world premier at UT of a documentary about the Philadelphia School of the Future.

The School of the Future is a 750-student high school that is the result of collaboration between Microsoft and the School District of Philadelphia. The goal of the partnership between Microsoft and the school district was to create a technology-based education model that could be replicated in other school districts.

Using the topics presented in the School of the Future documentary as a springboard, panelists at the town hall discussion answered questions about students’ math and science readiness, teacher skills assessment, 21st century workforce development and effective ways to use technology in the classroom.

“One of the key things to remember,” said Resta, who is a member of the Microsoft Partners in Learning advisory council, “is that it’s a mistake to simply ‘place’ technology in the classroom and have no good, working way of using it. It’s imperative that we get to a point where our use of technology in education reflects best teaching practices. We have all of this technology, and we really do need to look more at how people learn and how to foster learning within different kinds of settings, environments and in different, collaborative configurations.”

The University of Texas at Austin is the first campus to be visited on Microsoft’s multi-campus K20 Innovation Tour, and students, faculty and education stakeholders in the community were invited to the event.

Resta, who holds the Ruth Knight Millikan Centennial Professorship in Instructional Technology in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, serves as chair of the Association for Teacher Educators National Commission on Technology and the Future of Teacher Education. He also is chair of the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization Working Group on E-Learning for Teacher Development. Resta has been a member of the U.S. Department of Education advisory council for the Preparing Teachers to Use Technology program, on the advisory board of the International Children’s Art Foundation and on the board of governors for the U.S. Department of Education-sponsored Online Academy.

Resta has received the U.S. Distance Learning Association Award for Outstanding Achievements in Higher Education as well as the University Continuing Education Association National Distance Learning Course Award, two of the most prestigious awards for quality of instructional design and development of Web-based learning environments. Most recently, he was honored at the international Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education annual conference with the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award.

—Kay Randall, University Communications, 512-232-3910