Virtual Interactive Training And Learning '99

VITAL '99 Guest Authors

The following guest authors will discuss their books at VITAL '99 (more bios will be added soon):

James R. Davis, author of Effective Training Strategies : A Comprehensive Guide to Maximizing Learning in Organizations is a Professor of Higher Education and Adult Studies at the University of Denver, a private, doctoral-granting university in Denver, Colorado, U.S.A. He was formerly the Director of the Center for Academic Quality and Special Assistant to the Provost, Director of the Center for Faculty Development, Director of the School of Education, Acting Associate Dean for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs - all at the University of Denver. Previously he served as Academic Dean at Wilberforce University (Ohio), a historically black college.
Throughout his career as professor and administrator, Dr. Davis has offered numerous conference presentations and workshops for businesses, professional organizations, and colleges and universities across the United States and in foreign countries. Topics have included teamwork, training strategies, interdisciplinary studies, classroom teaching strategies, team teaching, and assessment. He is the author of numerous articles and four books, the most recent of which are Interdisciplinary Courses and Team Teaching: New Arrangements for Learning (October 1995) and Better Teaching, More Learning: Strategies for Success in Postsecondary Settings (August 1993) both in The Higher Education Series of the American Council on Education, published by The Oryx Press. His latest book, Effective Training Strategies: A Comprehensive Guide to Learning in Organizations was published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers in September 1998.
Dr. Davis holds degrees from Oberlin College, Yale University, and Michigan State University. His Ph.D., earned at Michigan State, is in Administration and Higher Education. He teaches courses on curriculum theory, teaching strategies, program planning for adults, and training.

Tony DiBella, author of How Organizations Learn: An Integrated Strategy for Building Learning Capability is President of Organization Transitions, Inc., a consulting firm engaged in applied research and training on learning and change issues in organizations. He holds a Ph.D. in organization studies from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Dr. DiBella has analyzed company operations literally around the world and consulted with a wide range of organizations including AT & T, FIAT, the Healthcare Forum, IBM, the Mellon Foundation, and the Uganda Central Credit Union.
He is co-developer of the Organizational Learning Inventory and the Healthcare Learning Inventory and has taught at MIT, Boston College, and the University of Massachusetts. As a scholar-practitioner, he has published in professional and academic journals including the Sloan Management Review and the Journal of Management Studies and is the author of How Organizations Learn: An Integrated Strategy for Building Learning Capability, (Jossey-Bass, 1998). His book, Learning Practices, will be published next year by Prentice-Hall. Tony is a founding member of the Society for Organizational Learning and a fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology.

Deanie French, author of the upcoming Internet Based Learning: An Introduction and Framework for Higher Education and Business is a professor for the healthcare human resources major in the Department of Heath Services and Research at Southwest Texas State University. Her research has focused on self-directed learning since the 1970's.
She has long been a pioneer in the area of Internet based learning. Every semester she actively uses augmented and virtual Internet based approaches to learning. The virtual course, "Internet, Change, and Long Term Care", which was co-developed by Sandy Ransom, was nominated for the 1998 national award for distinguished independent study for on-line learning. Dr. French received a salary award as a finalist for the 1999 outstanding university teacher at Southwest Texas State University

Steven Hackbarth, author of The Educational Technology Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide: Process and Products for Learning completed doctoral studies at the UCLA Graduate School of Education in 1976, where he received an award from the Doctoral Alumni Association for being "the most outstanding graduate of the School" for that year. He subsequently served as Director of Student Services and Adjunct Assistant Professor for the USC School of Education, as President of the Far West Philosophy of Education Society, and as a Consultant for UNICEF.
After completing a post-doctoral scholarship master's program in special education at New York University, he accepted a position in Manhattan where he now teaches students about computer technology and handles computer network maintenance. His publications relate primarily to humane applications of technology to education, with a current focus on integrating Web-based activities into school curriculums. His writing for UNICEF has related primarily to providing health and education services to the world's poorest, most marginalized children.

Martha Haywood, author of Managing Virtual Teams: Practical Techniques for High-Technology Project Managers is a Senior Consulting Partner at Management Strategies, a consulting firm which specializes in management of geographically distributed teams. Ms. Haywood has held Director and senior management positions at high technology companies such as Telebit Corporation and Harris Corporation. She has over 15 years experience managing product development teams. She has extensive experience in the management of large-scale telecommunication and data communication product development projects.
Ms. Haywood teaches project management at the University of California Berkeley Extension and developed their course on "Managing at a Distance". At Management Strategies Ms. Haywood has assisted companies such as Oracle, Lockheed Martin, Hewlett Packard, and Amdahl in the training and implementation of their distributed teams. Ms. Haywood serves on the board of Directors of the IEEE Engineering Management Society and the Telecommuting and Home Office Association Conference. She is a frequent lecturer at the Project World Conference, Boston University's Frontiers in Project Management Conference, ISDN World, and the PMI conference.

Dale Walter Karolak, author of Global Software Development: Managing Virtual Teams and Environments is an engineering director at TRW Automotive Electronics, where he is responsible for product development for domestic and international customers. His previous positions include software and systems engineering manager at ITT Aerospace/Communications, and software engineer at GTE Communications Systems R&D Laboratories. He is the creator of the Just-in-Time software development methodology, holds a patent on the Communications Management System Architecture, and has three patents pending in software architecture and communication.
Dr. Karolak has headed virtual software development ventures worldwide, including the US, Europe, and Middle East. His projects typically involve domestic and international companies and project teams of from l0 to 70 members. At present, he is assessing a joint US-European project to produce an automotive safety-critical product, and is currently conducting a series of joint design reviews.
Dr. Karolak received a PhD in software engineering from Union Institute, his MBA from the University of Phoenix, and a BS in computer science from Central Michigan University. He is the author of IEEE CS Press's bestseller Software Engineering Risk Management and developer of SERIM, the product that evolved from the book. Dr. Karolak is a frequent speaker at international conferences and has published widely in software management, metrics, reliability, quality, testing, and architecture. He is a member of the IEEE, IEEE Computer Society, ACM, and Society of Automotive Engineers.

Piet A. M. Kommers, author of Hypermedia Learning Environments: Instructional Design and Integration is an Asst. Professor at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. He specializes in media studies for educational and communicative settings: Hypermedia, multimedia, concept mapping and video conferencing for tele-learning. He is currently exploring the prospects of virtual reality for constructivistic learning; VR as conceptual space for navigation through epitomes of known and unknown topics.
He has been a visiting professor at East China Normal University at Shanghai, Glushkov Institute for Cybernetics at Kiev, Colorado University at Denver, Amman University in Jordan, Pretoria University in South Africa, Washington University in Seattle and NOVA University in Florida. He has coordinated and edited several books on Educational Technology: Hypermedia in Instruction, Eastern European Media Studies, Telematics, Document Management for Hypermedia Design, and Virtual Reality.

Cleborne D. Maddux, author of Educational Computing: Learning With Tomorrow's Technologies

Roger Schank, author of Virtual Learning: A Revolutionary Approach to Building a Highly Skilled Workforce, and director of the Institute for the Learning Sciences (ILS) at Northwestern University, is a leader in the field of artificial intelligence and multimedia-based interactive training. His work stresses the value of learning from experts, developing skills rather than perfecting routines, and applying the benefits of "just-in-time" training.
Schank has been the director of ILS since its founding in 1989. ILS, founded with support from Andersen Consulting, now has a staff of 100, including research and teaching faculty, programmers and content specialists, and over 60 graduate students, interns, and visiting staff. Schank is a strong critic of today's educational system. His approach to learning, and training in a corporate setting, involves helping people learn by doing, allowing people to make mistakes in a safe learning environment and sharing war stories with leading teachers and experts. This effort has led to his highly successful role as a teacher, consultant, and lecturer, as well as developer of extremely powerful and effective multimedia training tools.
One of the world's leading AI researchers, Schank is the author of more than 125 articles and publications. His books include: Dynamic Memory: A Theory of Learning in Computers and People; Tell Me a Story: A New Look at Real and Artificial Memory, The Connoisseur's Guide to the Mind, Engines for Education, and Dynamic Memory Revisited (Sept. '99). His newest book, Virtual Learning was published in 1998 by McGraw-Hill. Schank holds three faculty appointments at Northwestern University, as John Evans Professor of Computer Science, Psychology and Education and Social Policy. Previously he was a professor of computer science and psychology at Yale University and director of the Yale Artificial Intelligence Project. He was a visiting professor at the University of Paris VII, a faculty member at Stanford University and research fellow at the Institute for Semantics and Cognition in Switzerland.
Schank is a fellow of the AAAI and was the founder of the Cognitive Science Society and co-founder of the Journal of Cognitive Science. He holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Texas. Schank also serves as Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of the Cognitive Arts, a Chicago-based company that designs and markets computer-based learning systems. Earlier, he founded and served as president of two software development companies: Cognitive Systems, Inc. (specializing in the development of knowledge-based natural language computer systems) and CompuTeach, Inc. (creating and marketing educational software for personal computers).

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