Faculty accolades, January 2021

Ariel Anbar, President's Professor in the School Of Earth and Space Exploration and an MLFTC affiliate faculty member, co-authored a study that was named Outstanding Paper of the Year for 2020 by the Journal of Geoscience Education. The journal published “Immersive, Interactive Virtual Field Trips Promote Science Learning” in April 2019. “Field learning is considered an essential part of geoscience education,” the paper’s abstract explains, “yet there are many practical challenges that limit broad and equitable access to field learning. Virtual field experiences can now help to broaden access to field learning.” The study examined how interactive virtual field trips, which feature adaptive feedback, “ … allow for active and more scientifically authentic learning experiences [by responding] intelligently and automatically to student actions, guiding students through exploration, discovery and analysis.” Anbar is also director of ASU’s Center for Education Through eXploration and principal investigator for “Consortium for Open Active Pathways.” This U.S. Department of Education-funded partnership was established to create and curate open education resources, including interactive simulations, for STEM education.

Lauren McArthur Harris, associate professor of history education; and Leanna Archambault, associate professor of learning design and technology, won the 2020 National Technology Leadership Initiative Fellowship Award from College and University Faculty Assembly. They share the award with Catharyn Shelton, assistant professor in the Department of Educational Specialties at Northern Arizona University and a 2018 alumna of the MLFTC Learning, Literacies and Technologies PhD program.

The three won the award for their study, “Examining Issues of Quality On Teachers Pay Teachers: An Exploration of Best-Selling U.S. History Resources,” which they presented at CUFA’s virtual conference in December. CUFA is an affiliate group of the National Council for the Social Studies that comprises higher education faculty members, graduate students, K–12 teachers and others interested in a diversity of ideas and issues associated with social studies education.