Karen Ryan


Meet Karen Ryan
,
Director, Educational Technology Center,
UW-River Falls

 

This month, TTT features Karen Ryan, UW-River Falls' representative to the Learning Technology Development Council.

TTT: Please describe your work at UW-River Falls.

KR: My key responsibilities:

To direct the Educational Technology Center, housed in the College of Education and Professional Studies, and to teach preservice teachers in a gateway course which explores what it means to be a teacher, and ways to teach with technology. The culminating assignment for students in this course is the development of electronic portfolios.

Additional responsibilities:

I serve as co-director of the UW-RF's Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) grant, and work with grant director, Mary Lundeberg and the 23 student members of our Technology Leadership Cadre (TLC). We develop preservice teachers who mentor faculty, provide technology support to fellow students, and outreach to K-12 teachers. We are presently collaborating with several UW System campuses to promote student TLC through a UW System PT3 VIVA grant.

I am the UW-RF Blackboard site administrator, the LTDC representative, and director of the Idea Center, our campus learning technology center for faculty.

TTT: How long have you been in your current position?

KR: I began my work at UW-River Falls on November 1, 1997, leaving a 16-year directorship of an instructional media facility, and teaching preservice teachers at Harris-Stowe State College. HSSC is a Historically Black College in St. Louis, Missouri, with a teacher preparation tradition of more than 150 years. Prior to HSSC, I enjoyed teaching Media Design and 35 mm Photography in the Communication Department at St. Louis University. I have been teaching since 1961, with earliest experiences at the elementary, then secondary level.

TTT: What do you enjoy most about your job?

KR: I have always appreciated the creative challenge of combining administrative responsibilities with teaching and working with members of the faculty. No day is the same as another. I love working with our students and faculty.

TTT: What's the most memorable thing that has happened to you at this job?

KR: It is too difficult to limit myself to one most memorable event. Please let me share three!

1. I arrived on the UW-RF campus just in time to participate in the final planning of the College of Education and Professional Studies building, which has at its "heart" a large, open Educational Technology Center surrounded by 12 glass-walled technology-enhanced classrooms. Being part of that collaboration was a once-in-a-lifetime experience!
2. In August of 1999 we moved into the new building AND were awarded a $540,000 PT3 grant. We could ask ourselves "How would the grant and the building contribute to technology integration on our campus?" This grant work, particularly our experiment with preservice teachers as faculty mentors, has been some of the most rewarding of my career.
3. I have seen the growth of e-Learning on our campus and am inspired each semester by the colleagues I support in Blackboard. I am amazed at their inventiveness, their willingness to take technology risks and explore new options for delivering instruction. Administration of Blackboard has been especially rewarding because it has allowed me to reach outside the College of Education and to work with faculty from all colleges on campus. I look forward to assisting in the transition to Desire 2 Learn.

TTT: What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

KR: I love spatial puttering, constructing, redesigning around the house and always have projects in the making. I am fueled by classical music and inspired by good design no matter where I find it, publication, packaging, furniture, luggage, (a happy carryover from a BFA in sculpture).


Thanks, Karen!