Finding Your Online Voice: Stories Told by Experienced Online Educators

"Finding Your Online Voice" offers a thought-provoking discussion of innovative approaches to technology-based distance education. Editor J. Michael Spector focuses on how highly experienced teachers conceptualize and organize online classes. Best practices and guidelines for effective online teaching as well as a set of instructor skills specific to online learning environments are featured in the volume. Distinguished researchers recount stories from a richly detailed, personal viewpoint on topics such as: *teaching orientations and philosophies; *approaches to learning and instruction; *orientation to and uses of technology; *models and methods of technology-based teaching; and *reflections and self-assessments. This work is appropriate for professors, students, and professional practitioners working in the areas of distance education and educational technology. It is intended as a primary resource in courses on technology integration.

J. Michael Spector is Associate Director of the Learning Systems Institute and Professor of Instructional Systems at Florida State University. Previously he was Professor and Chair of Instructional Design, Development & Evaluation at Syracuse University and Professor of Information Science and Director of the Educational Information Science & Technology Research Program at the University of Bergen, Norway. He was the Senior Scientist for Instructional Systems Research at the United States Air Force Armstrong Research Laboratory from 1991-1996. Before joining Armstrong Laboratory, Dr. Spector was an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Jacksonville State University. His research is in the areas of learning in complex domains, intelligent performance support for instructional design, and system dynamics based learning environments. He has published widely in the area of instructional design research and technology enhanced learning and instruction. He is active in professional associations and serves on the editorial boards of several journals. He was awarded a Fulbright research fellowship (1995/1996) to work at the University of Bergen creating and testing an interactive simulation of project dynamics for large-scale courseware development efforts. Dr. Spector served on the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction (ibstpi) as Executive Vice President, is a member of the IEEE Learning Technology Technical Committee, is a past-President of the Design and Development Division of the Association for Educational and Communications Technology (AECT), and is Editor of ETR&D-Development.