The MLLS Evaluation Team    The strengths of the MLLS evaluation team include that we have plenty of classroom teaching (and teaching with technology) experience, so we understand the trenches and realities of schools and the classroom. Our team has years of "real" evaluation experience and are good at authentic assessment - putting meaningful educational research on top of a project evaluation. Also, we know what accomplishments to look for that will lead to success because we've worked with several large scale learning with laptop initiatives and have seen those accomplishments. We know the right questions to ask and we know how to find the answers.   Dr. Mike Muir Dr. Mike Muir is a professor of middle level education and educational technology at the University of Maine at Farmington, with experience in researching both motivation of students and educational technology. He is a member of the National Middle School Association's Research Advisory Board. Dr. Muir was the director of UMF's Electronic Guild Network Project funded by the U.S. Dept. of Ed. Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) for 2001-2004. Dr. Muir has a distinguished history of working with classroom teachers from Maine to Louisiana to Alaska to improve their practice. He worked with the Maine Governor's Office on Maine Learning Technology Initiative's early implementation, and continues to work closely with the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Education Policy Research Institute, and MLTI Staff. He works with teachers across the state as they work to implement the learning with laptops initiative and serves on the MLTI Design Team for Curriculum and Professional Development. Dr. Muir is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Maine Association for Middle Level Education, and of the Maine Commission on Middle Level Education. He was named Middle School Educator of the Year for Maine in 1998. He has taught high school mathematics and computer applications and was a computer integrator at a middle school, working with teachers to effectively integrate technology into their teaching. Among his numerous journal articles are four on Maine's learning with laptop initiative. He has also written three books on educational technology and is currently working on several others.   Dr. Gerald Knezek Dr. Gerald Knezek is Professor of Technology and Cognition at the University of North Texas and Director of the Institute for the Integration of Technology into Teaching and Learning. He previously held the Matthews Chair for Research in Education and was recently Lead External Evaluator for a U.S. Dept. of Education Technology Innovation Challenge Grant spanning 1999-2004. He received his Ph.D. in 1978 in Educational Psychology/multivariate methods and has been involved in large-scale evaluations of state (Hawaii, Texas, Maine) and federal projects for 25 years. He holds graduate faculty status and teaches masters/doctoral courses in data analysis and research methodology. He serves on the Executive Committee of the American Educational Research Association Special Interest Group on Technology as an Agent for Change in Teaching and Learning and was recently appointed to a 3-year term as Chairman of the Society for Information Technology in Teacher Education (SITE) Research Committee.   Dr. Rhonda Christensen Dr. Rhonda Christensen is a research scientist and associate director for the Institute for the Integration of Technology into Teaching and Learning (IITTL). She has been/is an evaluator on several large funded technology education projects for the past five years. These projects include a US Dept. of Education Technology Innovation Challenge Grant, three US Dept. of Ed. Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) grants at UNT, Univ. of Maine at Farmington and Univ. of Nevada-Reno, an NSF funded ITEST project at the Univ. of Louisiana-Monroe, a Dept. of Commerce grant at the Monroe, Louisiana Chamber of Commerce and various other district educational technology projects including Irving ISD in Texas' Laptop project. She is a former elementary classroom teacher and has been teaching preservice teachers to integrate technology for the past ten years.   The Maine Center for Meaningful Engaged Learning The Maine Center for Meaningful Engaged Learning (McMEL) is a project of the University of Maine at Farmington, one of the highest rated public liberal arts colleges in New England, and Maine's premier teacher preparation college. Dr. Mike Muir is McMEL's director. McMEL provides information & resources, consulting and presentations, and research and evaluation on the motivation of students, on middle level education, and on teaching and learning with technology. McMEL works with UMF faculty and undergraduate student research assistants on a variety of projects (http://www.mcmel.org/). The University of Maine at Farmington, through McMEL's work, has become a major university partner to the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI), the first statewide learning with laptop initiative, currently providing more than 39,000 laptops to every 7th and 8th student and teacher in Maine. McMEL has worked closely with MLTI on professional development, initiative design and implementation, project documentation and dissemination, and research and evaluation. http://www.mcmel.org   The Institute for the Integration of Technology into Teaching and Learning The Institute for the Integration of Technology into Teaching and Learning (IITTL) will work along side McMEL to ensure successful MLLS objectives. McMEL and IITTL have worked together on educational technology research and evaluation projects since July 2002. IITTL, housed at the University of North Texas, is chartered by the UNT Council of Deans to conduct research and implement best practices in the area of teaching and learning with technology. It has a well-developed and tested, online data collection system that currently collects data from thousands of educators participating in a collaborative data sharing program. IITTL employs many individuals who are currently doctoral candidates in information technology programs at UNT. Dr. Gerald Knezek is director of IITTL and Dr. Rhonda Christensen is associate director of IITTl and is a research scientist. IITTL housed an Implementation Grant in the Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology Program (PT3), an evaluation contract for a large Technology Innovation Challenge grant (Key Instructional Design Strategies), an Intel Preservice Teach to the Future grant, the evaluation for a currently funded PT3 at the University of Nevada-Reno, and it is closely affiliated with an NSF gender/equity grant (Bringing Up Girls in Science). IITTL has generated four books and more than one dozen refereed journal articles in the area of impacts of information technology in education over the past three years.   http://www.iittl.unt.edu/

The 1-to-1 Advocate 1-to-1 Evaluation MLLS Home MLTI MLLS Research Briefs         The Maine Learning with Laptop Studies is a project of the Maine Center for Meaningful Engaged Learning in collaboration with The Institute for the Integration of Technology Into Teaching and Learning   Maine Center for Meaningful Engaged Learning University of Maine at Farmington 252 Main St. Farmington, ME 04938 http://www.mcmel.org Mike Muir, Director mmuir@maine.edu 207-778-7179 Inservice Available   The Institute for the Integration of Technology Into Teaching and Learning University of North Texas Matthews Hall Rm. 316 1300 Highland Ave. Denton, TX 76203 http://www.iittl.unt.edu/ Gerald Knezek, Director gknezek@gmail.com 940-565-2057 Rhonda Christensen, Associate Director rhonda.christensen@gmail.com Created by Mike Muir Last updated: April 2, 2005