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UW School of Education Alumni Weekend Program and Awards Ceremony:

Honoring a national presence in education

by Jonathan Gramling

Above: Award winner Andreal Davis (center in pink) is greeted by family and friends. Below: Andreal Davis (l-r), Richard Rossmiller, Curtis Bonk, Jose Rios, Education Dean Charles Read, Harry Peterson, Alice Dewey, Annelies Howell, and Carlotte Irey ShortThe University of Wisconsin's School of Education is considered to be one of the best in the nation. Its graduates have had a national presence, both in and out of the classroom. Take Curtis Bonk, for example. He graduated from the UW-Madison with a master's in 1987 and a Ph.D. in educational psychology in 1989. Bonk has since made an international reputation as an authority on the use of technology in the classroom and in distance learning. He founded Indiana University's Center for Research on Learning and Technology. Bonk is just as comfortable giving a lecture to Scandinavian students on-line as he is giving an animated lecture in person at the UW-Madison.

Bonk was one of eight UW School of Education alumni to be honored on May 8 as a part of the school's Alumni Weekend Program held in the Margaret H'Doubler Performance Space in Lathrop Hall. Alumni from all across the country attended the awards program as a part of a larger weekend of activities planned for the Education alumni. Also honored was Madison's Andreal Davis, co-director of the African American Ethnic Academy.

Bonk doubled up as the keynote speaker for the event. His talk, "The Perfect E-Storm: Emerging Technology, Escalating Demands, and Enhanced Teaching," utilizing multi-media and a touch of theater, explored the issues and challenges of adapting rapidly changing technology in the classroom. "It's almost mind-boggling," Bonk exclaimed. "Every day or every week, there are these announcements about something you can be doing with technology or results of. For faculty members, it almost becomes - I don't want to say unfair - a daunting challenge to keep up and to know when to jump in. What is the one that will make a difference in my classroom? You can't adopt all of them at once."

Bonk was a shining example of the impact the UW School of Education has in fields inside - and outside - education.

Curtis Bonk demonstrates the impact of technology on teaching in his talk “The Perfect E-Storm: Emerging Technology, Escalting Demands, and Enhanced Teaching.The following five graduates of the UW School of Education received Alumni Achievement Awards, the School's highest honor:

• Curtis J. Bonk, professor of educational psychology and instructional systems technology at Indiana University, who is recognized worldwide for his expertise in distance education.

• Alice Dewey, the first woman to produce an animated feature film - Hercules - for Walt Disney Studios, for which she received the Annie Award for best producer, and producer of Disney's current animated release, Home on the Range.

• Harry L. Peterson, a consummate professional educator whose distinguished career includes serving as executive assistant to the UW-Madison chancellor; vice president for university relations at the University of Idaho; deputy chancellor for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities; and president of Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado.

• Richard A. Rossmiller, an emeritus UW-Madison professor of educational administration known for his influential work on K-12 school finance and the costs of high-quality special education services.

• Charlotte Irey Short, a pioneer in dance education and emerita professor who almost single-handedly built the dance program at the University of Colorado into one of the best in the nation.

The Outstanding Recent Graduate Award was presented to Jose M. Rios, an assistant professor of education at the University of Washington, Tacoma, whose accomplishments include developing one of UW-Madison's first summer enrichment programs for underserved and minority high school students.

The Lois Gadd Nemec Distinguished Elementary Education Alumni Award was presented to Andreal Davis, co-director of the African American Ethnic Academy, a Saturday enrichment program, and a Title I reading instructor and parent involvement coordinator for the Madison Metropolitan School District.

The first Carroll and Robert Heideman Distinguished Secondary Education Alumni Award went to Annelies Howell, a math and physics teacher at Verona Area High School who is admired for her ability to engage her students and make complex mathematical concepts understandable and relevant.