Stephanie S Atkins
Stephanie S. Atkins is the Assistant Circulation and
Bookstacks Librarian and Assistant Professor of Library Administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library. She earned her MSLIS from the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1999. Her research
interests include personnel training, collection management,
and project management in libraries.
Curtis Bonk
Curt Bonk is a former corporate controller and CPA, who, after becoming sufficiently bored with that, received his master's and Ph.D. degrees in educational psychology from the University of Wisconsin. He is now Professor of Educational Psychology as well as Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University (IU). Dr. Bonk is also a Senior Research Fellow with the Advanced Distributed Learning Lab within the Department of Defense and a founding member of the Center for Research on Learning and Technology at IU. He has received numerous teaching and mentoring awards from IU as well as the CyberStar Award from the Indiana Information Technology Association, the Most Outstanding Achievement Award from the U.S. Distance Learning Association, and the Most Innovative Teaching in a Distance Education Program Award from the State of Indiana. During the past two years, Dr. Bonk has presented over 150 talks around the globe related to online teaching and learning, including ones at universities in China, New Zealand, Australia, Korea, Finland, Iceland, and the United Arab Emirates. Curt has more than 100 publications on topics such as online learning pedagogy, massive multiplayer online gaming, collaborative technologies, synchronous and asynchronous computer conferencing, and frameworks for Web-based instruction and evaluation. Currently, he is working on the "Handbook of Blended Learning Environments: Global Perspectives, Local Designs," to be published by Pfeiffer Publishing in November 2005. Finally, he is President of CourseShare and SurveyShare and can be contacted at cjbonk@indiana.edu or via his homepage at
http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk/ Norman Coombs, Ph.D.
Norman Coombs, Ph.D. is the CEO of EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information) as well as
professor emeritus from the Rochester Institute of Technology where he
taught history for 36 years. He pioneered RIT's distance learning program
and was given Zenith's "Master of Innovation" award for his uses of distance
learning to mainstream students with disabilities and also was chosen
as New York State CASE, (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education), "Teacher
of the Year" award in 1990 for using computers in teaching. In 1998,
he was selected Man of the Year Award by AHEAD, in 1999, he received
the Strache National Leadership Award from the CSUN Center on Disabilities,
and, in 2000, he was the recipient of the Francis Joseph Campbell Award
of the American Library Association for work in helping libraries to
meet the needs of customers with disabilities. Coombs, who is blind,
has found adaptive computer technology has transformed his life, and
he eagerly works to spread this information to benefit others.
Besides continuing to teach distance learning classes for RIT, he has
taught at a distance for San Diego State University, the New School for
Social Research, the University of Washington, the University of Southern
Maine, for Environment Canada and for EASI Corp.
He is the CEO of EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information). EASI
has been awarded three grants by the National Science Foundation to collect
and disseminate information on providing access to the fields of science
and math for students and professionals with disabilities.
Coombs has lectured on distance learning and on making information systems
accessible to students with disabilities across the US as well as in
Canada, England, Switzerland and Turkey. He has consulted on both distance
learning and on adaptive computer technology for several colleges and
universities including the University of Toronto, Western Governors'
University, San Diego State University, Ohio State University, the OhioLINK
academic library system, the Chicago Suburban Library System, the Rochester
Regional Library Coalition and Oakland Community College. He co-authored
and co-teaches with Richard Banks on-line workshops for EASI on adaptive
technology, Universal Web Design and on providing access to science and
math for disabled students.
Web: http://www.rit.edu/~nrcgsh
E-mail: nrcgsh@rit.edu
Steven J. McDonald
Steven J. McDonald is General Counsel at the Rhode Island School of
Design and previously served as Associate Legal Counsel at The Ohio
State University. He has handled a number of Internet-related legal
matters, ranging from alleged infringements of copyrighted materials
on student web pages to investigations of computer break-ins to an
e-mail death threat to Socks the cat. He began his legal career in
private practice at Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, where he represented
CompuServe in Cubby v. CompuServe, the first online libel case, and
he also has taught courses in Internet law at Ohio State's College
of Law and at Capital University Law School. He is a past member of the
Board of Directors of the National Association of College and University
Attorneys and is the editor of NACUA's The Family Educational Rights
and Privacy Act: A Legal Compendium. He received his A.B. from Duke
University in 1982 and his J.D. from The Yale Law School in 1985.
Burks Oakley II
Burks Oakley II is an Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Illinois . He serves as the director of the University of Illinois Online initiative, a program designed to facilitate the development and delivery of University of Illinois courses and degrees over the Internet. Oakley also holds an academic appointment as a tenured full professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
Through his innovative use of educational technologies and the Internet in teaching, Professor Oakley has earned a national reputation as a practitioner and promoter of asynchronous online learning environments. In the past six years, he has given more than two hundred invited talks at national conferences and on university campuses. He has been the PI or co-PI on over $10 million in grants (including matching funds) to the University of Illinois in support of online educational initiatives.
