Team Sponsor John Bunch
John Bunch is an Associate Professor of IT at UVA. He teaches
courses in the areas of History and Issues in IT; Video;
Photography; and Museums and Education. His research interests
are in the Psychology and Philosophy of Technology, Visual
Communications, and in Museum Education. He has a BA in
History, an MA in Folkore, and a Phd in Education.
jbb2s@virginia.edu
Denise Hoff
A master's candidate in Instructional Technology at the
University of Virginia, Denise Hoff is currently employed by
the University's Office of Career Planning and Placement (OCPP)
as the designer and instructor of World-Wide Web seminars. She
has participated in many other instructional design efforts,
including multicultural programming for the University's
student union, exhibit supplements for the Virginia Discovery
Museum, and computer instruction for UVa's Teaching Resource
Center. She is also an instructor for UVa's department of
Information Technology and Communication, and a World Wide Web
designer for the Charlottesville Regional Tourism Council.
Denise is a native of Richmond, Virginia and a member of the
Richmond chapter of the American Society for Training and
Development (ASTD).
cdh2g@virginia.edu
Ann Kovalchick
My name is Ann Kovalchick and I'm a doctoral student in
Instructional Technology at UVa' Curry School of Education. I
have over 10 years of experience working in media and education
and have worked on projects in Belize, Central America (where I
was a Peace Corps volunteer); Tecigicalpa, Honduras; Jos,
Nigetria and Cairo, Egypt. My training and background include a
B.Sc. in communications theory and and MA in socio-cultural
anthropology. Currently, I'm co-teaching a course in
educational technology for second year pre-service teachers and
developing a survey instrument and evaluation model which focus
on faculty use of instructional technology in higher education.
When I'm not sitting in front of a computer, I try to spend
time taking long walks with my husband Paul and our dog,
India. Otherwise, I enjoy reading, traveling, cooking and
watching films.
aek5d@virginia.edu
Pam Robbins
Ask Pam Robbins why she decided to become an instructional
technologist and she'll reply, "It's a heck of a lot of fun!"
Indeed, Pam's been searching for a "fun" career since May of
1988, when she graduated with a B.A. in English Education from
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Pam knew she
wanted to do something with curriculum development, writing,
graphic design, and computers, but just what that something was
took her six years to discover. Pam's interest in developing
interactive multimedia grew out of an Instructional Design
course she took at North Carolina State University. She was
required to develop a teaching module using HyperCard, and
she's been hooked ever since. After completing a six-month
internship at Digital Equipment Corporation, Pam will earn her
M.Ed. in Instructional Technology from the University of
Virginia in December, 1996.
probbins@virginia.edu
Dianne Simons
Hello everyone. My name is Dianne Simons. I'm a doctoral
student in the Instructional Technology program at the Curry
School of Education at the University of Virginia. I have an
undergraduate degree in art. My first career was as artist for
educational materials for two medical and nursing schools. I
had the special opportunity for four years to work with five
Master's prepared nurses in the development of state of the art
self-instructional materials. I learned a great deal about
design, script writing, storyboarding and final production
techniques as a result of my work. After several years in
commercial media development, I returned to school and changed
my career direction. My second career was as a clinical
occupational therapist (OT) working with adolescents and
adults. I worked in a psychiatric hospital, a chemical
dependency treatment center, and the juvenile correction
system. I provided some individual therapy but predominantly
group therapy with the goal of helping persons regain feelings
of personal control over their own lives. Eight years ago I
began teaching, on a part time basis, in the occupational
therapy department at Virginia Commonwealth University (located
in Richmond, Virginia). I found that I really loved teaching.
In January of 1995 1 accepted a full-time appointment. I teach
undergraduate and graduate level courses in group process, OT
theory, and pediatric and adolescent psychosocial dysfunction.
My third and current career is as an educator. As I progress
in my doctoral work, my goal is to merge all three of my areas
of expertise for the purpose of designing and producing
multimedia materials for OT education. I am very interested in
the use of case studies in OT education and am therefore
delighted to be taking part in this case competition for
instructional design. On a personal note, I am married with
two children, a son 15 years old and a daughter 8 years old.
When I'm not working or making the drive on 1-64 between
Richmond and Charlottesville, I am either at the YMCA doing
aerobics or spending time with my family. I plan to get back
to playing tennis and riding horses once I've finished my
doctoral studies. There's not enough time or money in the
meantime. Good luck, everyone!
dfs5w@virginia.edu
