Category Archives: College of Education and Educational Technology

Calling Top Scholars: The Honor Society Invitations Are in the Mail!

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Thumbnail image for phikappaph_260pxi.jpgPhi Kappa Phi, the oldest, largest, and most selective all-discipline honor society in the nation, honored its IUP chapter as a “Chapter of Excellence” in November.

Now, IUP junior, senior, and graduate students in the top 10 percent of their classes have the chance to join this most excellent chapter.

The honor society recently sent membership invitations to 430 undergraduate students and 557 graduate students, mailing the invitations to the students’ home addresses on record with the university.

The IUP chapter will have two initiation ceremonies: March 28 for undergraduate students and April 3 for graduate students. Both ceremonies will be held from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the Blue Room, Sutton Hall.

Students may accept the invitation to join by mailing in a form or completing one on the web and should indicate whether they will attend the ceremony — for undergraduates, the deadline is March 7; for graduate students, March 13.

“We really hope that all invited students respond to this invitation — it’s a wonderful opportunity for students to be part of a national network of scholars,” said Professor Dennis Giever, IUP chapter president.

In addition, he notes that “Phi Kappa Phi has more than $700,000 in scholarships and graduate fellowships for its members nationally, and several IUP students have been selected for these awards since IUP’s chapter was chartered in 1993.”

He asks that faculty encourage invited students to reply. “We know that students get inundated with information and mailings, but this is something that can be of great benefit to them, especially if they have an interest in scholarships or graduate fellowships.”

Check your mail. You are already a winner! 

Tentative about Technology? College of Education Has Your Back!

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College Technology DayFacebook, Twitter, PowerPoint, Google, the “Cloud,” Prezi, D2L, podcasting, Photoshop, webinars, Moodle, tablets…

It’s all part of teaching and learning today.

Confused? Don’t worry. The College of Education and Educational Technology has your back.

January 18, 2012, is the second annual Technology Day, sponsored by the College of Education and Educational Technology. This event, held from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Stouffer Hall’s Beard Auditorium, is open to the entire IUP community and features faculty and staff members across the university sharing expertise on technology topics related to teaching and learning. It’s free, and no registration is required–and you can come and go as your schedule permits.

Worried about best use of PowerPoint? Come to the 9:00 a.m. session with Cheryl Kohler.

Okay with PowerPoint but twitterpated about Twitter? Listen to John Lowery’s program “Twitter Backchannels: Extending the Classroom Discussion,” or Crystal Machado and Ying Jiang’s “Don’t Get Bitter… Just Twitter.”

Facebook hater? Don’t be. Come to Jennifer Forrest’s “Using Facebook to Encourage and Monitor Students Working on Group Projects.”

The programs all focus on how technology can advance teaching or the use of IUP’s unique technology products, including IUP’s new test-scoring system (presented by Joanne Kuta) and its new calendar system (co-presented by Todd Cunningham and Ben Dadson). In addition to the individual and group presentations, there will be a panel discussion about use of simulation in teaching and learning and one about “Teaching Online Courses–A Panel of Experienced Faculty.”

These are just some of the presentations scheduled throughout the day. For a more detailed schedule, visit the College of Education website or contact Lloyd Onyett, assistant dean for technology.

Student Success in Schools? Thank a School Counselor

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John McCarthyIt’s a chance for IUP to recognize and honor the work of professional school counselors throughout Western Pennsylvania.

On December 16, the College of Education and Educational Technology will host the ninth annual School Counselor Professonal Development Day. The event, which annually draws about 100 school counselors, will be in the Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex. The event is free and open to all area professional school counselors. It includes panel discussions and workshops conducted by Counseling Department faculty and students.

IUP’s Counseling Department ofers two graduate degrees–the Master of Arts in Community Counseling and the Master of Education in School Counseling. IUP also offers these programs at the Monroeville Graduate and Professional Center.

The Department of Counseling also has significant outreach programs and opportunities through the Center for Counselor Training and Services. This center, launched in 2005 and directed by John McCarthy, offers programs for both undergraduate and graduate students and for professionals in the field. In fact, on April 20, 2012, the CCTS will host a pioneer in the career counseling field, John Krumboltz. He will present the program “Helping to Create a Meaningful Life in a Difficult Economy.”

The Department of Counseling is part of the IUP College of Education and Educational Technology and is just one of the departments that serve our region, our commonwealth, and our nation in preparing educators, couselors, and so many others who create success for our children.

IUP’s John McCarthy: “Let’s Talk about Suicide”

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In addition to teaching, researching, and mentoring students, IUP’s faculty members are often part of local, regional, national, and international groups and nonprofit agencies offering expertise in a variety of fields.

John McCarthyJohn McCarthy, a professor in IUP’s Department of Counseling and director of IUP’s Center for Counselor Training and Services, is a member of the Westmoreland County Suicide and Awareness Prevention Task Force, among other organizations.

In observance of tomorrow’s Annual International Survivors of Suicide Day, Dr. McCarthy authored a powerful editorial in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on November 17.

Titled “Let’s Talk about Suicide,” the editorial points out that the topic of suicide is often a taboo topics for families, communities, and societies. However, Dr. McCarthy notes that while homicides are often in media headlines, suicides rarely make the news.

He then offers the startling figure that the act of suicide took the lives of more than 34,000 Americans in 2007 (according to the Centers for Disease Control). This compares to more than 18,000 homicides commited that same year.

He also shares data from the American Academy of Suicidology that indicate that more than 1,500 Pennsylvanians lost their lives to suicide in 2008. And, for every life lost, as many as 25 people attempt suicide.

He ends his editorial urging awareness and discussion.

“Suicide. It is a sensitive topic, to be sure, yet it too often is on the Taboo List of things to discuss. Let’s remove it. Let’s talk.”

Dr. McCarthy is well-known in the field of counseling. In addition to his work at IUP and with this regional group, he serves on the board of directors of the Center for Credentialing and Education, a corporate affiliate of the National Board of Certified Counselors.

During spring 2011, he seved as an academic visitor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge. He is widely published and, since 2009, has participated in the International Academic Fellowship Program in the Higher Education Support Program of the Open Society Institute. In this role, he works with the Department of Psychology at Yerevan State University in Armenia.

IUP Honors Veteran Killed in Persian Gulf with Scholarship

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Service member saluting flagIUP works to honor and remember those who lost their lives in service to our country. The memorials on campus recognizing our veterans were the subject of a special IUP Magazine story titled “Honoring, Remembering Our Own” in 2010.

Recently, the IUP College of Education and Educational Technology remembered a very special young woman from our community who never got the opportunity to attend IUP.

Beverly Sue Clark, a native of Armagh, was one of thirteen Army reservists killed in a scud missle attack during the Persian Gulf War in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Clark, an employee of Season-All in Indiana, had planned to enter IUP’s education program and become a teacher upon her return from the Persian Gulf. In her honor, friends and family members established the Beverly Sue Clark Scholarship for students preparing for a career in teaching, with special consideration given to military personnel and veterans of the war in the Persian Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan and their family members.

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of her death.

The Beverly Sue Clark scholarship is is just one of several scholarships established in honor of those who have lost their lives in service to our country or who are veterans of military service.

The memorials and these memorial scholarships remind us that these special individuals are remembered and appreciated–not just on Veterans Day, but throughout the year, especially by those who have received these scholarships.

In the case of Beverly Sue Clark, her dream of touching the future through teaching comes true through the generosity of her family and friends and by all who have received her scholarship. What a wonderful way to add to her already very special legacy.

Celebrating Native American Heritage

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NativeAmerican_260px.jpgThere’s a beautiful photograph in the president’s office at IUP, taken by retired Communications Media professor Richard Lamberski.

The photo, titled “We Have Survived,” is of a dance at the 2009 Tipton Powwow.

On November 12, it will be formally presented to IUP by Clifton Pembleton, chair of the IUP Native American Awareness Council, as a “cultural trust to the president of IUP with grateful appreciation from the IUP Native American Awareness Council.”

The presentation begins the fifth annual celebration of American Indian Heritage Month on campus, scheduled from noon to 5:00 p.m. in the Hadley Union Building Delaware Room. It’s free and open to the community and will feature a variety of performers, including Mathew White Eagle Clair, Bill Crouse, Drums of Native Sisters and Michael Jacobs.

Anyone who has had a longtime affiliation with IUP knows Clifton Pembleton and his wife, Sandy, who both recently retired from IUP, and how active they have been with the council and the work of creating more awareness about Native American culture.

Clif and Sandy are joined by several IUP faculty members on the Native American Awareness Council: Sarah Neusius, Anthropology, vice chair; Holly Boda-Sutton, Theater and Dance; James Dougherty and Melanie Hildebrandt, Sociology; Robert Millward and Monte Tidwell, Professional Studies in Education; Theresa Smith, Religious Studies; student Germaine McArdle (Oglala, Lakota Sioux); and Jennifer Soliday, Dan Mock, and Kinorea Tigris (Cherokee, Creek, Oglala, Lakota and Sioux).

IUP’s celebration of Native American Awareness Month came after Ms. Soliday, then an undergraduate, wrote to the IUP president, “I feel that it would be in the university’s best interest to demonstrate IUP’s sensitivity to American Indian culture and formally recognize this November, and every November, as American Indian Heritage Month.”

The president agreed, as did the IUP Council of Trustees. Talk about a great legacy and how one voice can truly make a difference.

Five years later, not only is the event gaining in popularity, but the NAAC is continuing its efforts to build awareness about Native American culture and to enhance and build Native American programs at IUP, including exchanges and educational events.

Good News “for a Change”

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What They Said screen shot

I truly do enjoy my job, and I am very appreciative of the folks who go out of their way to tell me that they are happy with the media coverage I’ve arranged. One of my favorite things is when folks e-mail me or stop me out walking around campus with story ideas. Alumni, especially, are very loyal to IUP, and they like to see their university represented fairly for the accomplishments of its students, faculty, and graduates. So, I try not to take it personally when I hear, “Let’s get some good news out there about IUP for a change.” I know they care deeply about IUP and its reputation and are just trying to help.

For the past several years, I’ve been maintaining a log of media hits on the What They Said web page. I think it’s a nice record of IUP in the news, and I hope that people (hint, hint: This means YOU, blog reader) visit it often.

But I’ve not really done an “official” count of media hits for several years, so, last year, I was asked to  count and measure the number of “good news” stories about IUP out there with circulation information. Here’s what we found:

There were 435 positive stories about IUP from January 2010 to January 2011 in 46 different media outlets locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.

This does NOT include the hundreds of stories featured on our local radio station OR any stories on athletics. … I imagine the number would probably triple if I counted sports reports and features.

Anyway, these media hits ranged from places like Religion Dispatch (with a circulation of 2.3 million), the New York Times (circulation 740,007), and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune (circulation 534,750) to 29 hits in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (circulation 393,071), 22 hits in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (circulation 319,987), and 310 stories in the Indiana Gazette (circulation 16,000). Using what researchers call the “industry multiplier” (how many people actually read or hear news reports), this means that good news at IUP “for a change” reached 76,474,622 people. Yes, 76.5 million people.

Of course, we don’t catch every media hit, so this is just what I’ve been able to document. I think it’s a pretty impressive number.

That’s the good news. But be assured, I’m working to get that 76.5 million up past 100 million for 2011-2012,…so story tips and ideas are always welcome!

IUP-TV Crew Dazzles CBS Sports Crew

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IUP received great publicity when CBS Sports Network broadcast last night’s home football game (September 15). There were at least two alumni watch parties in distant places, and alumni from across the country gave us likes and comments to promotional announcements we made on IUP’s Facebook page. IUP nearly upset nationally ranked Bloomsburg.

IUP_TV_Logo_redblack.pngWhat you may not have heard: The students of IUP-TV came to the CBS crew’s rescue. CBS forgot to bring along a particular cable–an essential piece of equipment needed to use IUP-TV’s editing system. The students and station technician Chris Barber juryrigged some equipment to make it possible for the crew to use the system. The CBS crew was impressed again by the students’ ability to edit the footage shot of campus and of Indiana that was shown during the broadcast. IUP-TV students also worked in various paid support positions during the broadcast. All great stuff for aspiring broadcast industry professionals.

Here’s a sample of the IUP-TV sports crew’s ability, produced after the home opener against East Stroudsburg.