Looking+Up+&+Out+Speakers

Donald J. Leu, Ph.D., is the John and Maria Neag Endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology and holds a joint appointment in Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut. He directs the New Literacies Research Lab at the University of Connecticut and is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association and the Reading Hall of Fame. He is a past President of the National Reading Conference. A graduate of Michigan State, Harvard, and Berkeley, Don’s work focuses on the new skills and strategies required to read, write, and learn with Internet technologies and the best instructional practices that prepare students for these new literacies. He has more than 100 research publications and seventeen books on topics that range from phonics and phonemic awareness to teacher education and the new literacies of online reading comprehension. Dr. Sara Kajder is an assistant professor of English education at Virginia Tech. A former middle and high school English teacher, her current work examines the uses of new literacies in engaging reluctant/resistant adolescent readers in the English classroom. A sought-after national speaker and consultant, she is also the author of Adolescents and Digital Literacies (2010), Bringing the Outside In (2006), and The Tech Savvy English Classroom (2003).

Dr. Yong Zhao is a professor in the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education at the College of Education, Michigan State University. He is the Director of the Center for Teaching and Technology as well as the US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence. Dr. Zhao is the Executive Director of the Confucius Institute at Michigan State University.

Dr. Bridget Dalton is currently an Assistant Professor of Learning, Literacy, and Culture in the College of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt's Peabody College. Prior to joining Vanderbilt, Dr. Dalton served as the Chief Officer of Literacy and Technology for CAST, Inc., a non-profit research and development organization that develops and applies universal design for learning theory and practice. She recently completed another IES reading comprehension project with co-principal investigator Annemarie Palincsar of the University of Michigan. This study investigated the role of interactive diagrams and pedagogical agents in supporting students' comprehension of science text.