Katie L. Vale
Professional Experience:
Harvard University
Faculty of Arts and Sciences/Central Administration
Director of Academic Technology, Harvard University Information Technology
(formerly Director of Instructional Computing, FAS IT)
2008 – present
Provide vision and strategy for educational technology support and program development for teaching and learning in Harvard FAS. Act as a liaison to Deans, Provost’s Office, faculty, librarians, Bok Center for Teaching and Learning and other academic staff, and advocate for curricular issues including course technologies, learning space design, House (dormitory) renewal, and innovative pedagogy for Harvard’s new undergraduate curriculum in General Education. Supervise the Presidential Instructional Technology Fellowship program for FAS, in which students are trained in instructional design, technology, and educational assessment while developing course materials for Harvard faculty. Lead and manage the Academic Technology Group, comprised of 12 FTE and 25 student software developers, instructional designers, media architects, graphic designers, and business analysts. Implemented new program to support the student experience, including establishment of a student advisory group and undergraduate representation in IT planning. Serve as academic advisor for first-year students, and contribute to institutional research and reaccreditation efforts. Assist with corporate and foundation relations activities, and co-authored proposal resulting in $40 million donation in support of innovative pedagogy projects. Sponsor of an international multi-university effort to build an open-source common collaborative media annotation framework. Plan and manage approximately $2 million ATG budget and participate in FAS IT/HUIT budget forecasting and tracking. Before HUIT reorganization also managed academic administrative and Registrarial projects such as course placement exams, freshman forms, electronic portfolios and study cards, and helped create the College IT committee to streamline College administrative work.
Committee work:
Principal, General Education Curriculum - Instructional Support Services Team, Hauser Fund for Innovative Pedagogy Implementation Team
Inaugural Chair, IQSS Technical Advisory Committee
Chair, Learning Spaces Subcommittee of the FAS Pedagogical Improvement Committee
Member, Harvard Academic Computing Committee, Academic Technology Managers Group, FAS Classroom Committee, 21st Century Learning Spaces Committee, College IT Committee, Committee for Corporate and Foundation Relations, Board of Freshman Advisers and Committee on Learning in Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Assistant Director
Office of Educational Innovation and Technology 2007 – 2008
Reported to Dean of Undergraduate Education. Served on implementation and assessment team for Project-Based Learning (e.g. CDIO) in the first year curriculum and on the Academic Computing Coordination (ACCORD) team in conjunction with MIT Libraries. Led Educational Technology Consulting group, including specialists in GIS, visualization, and engineering software; managed budget and full-time personnel; consulted and collaborated with faculty, researchers, DUE and MIT Teaching and Learning Lab staff on evaluation of instructional technologies and pedagogical methods; led projects on bringing research tools into the curriculum; conducted outreach with faculty and teaching staff; managed multimedia development facility; hired and trained student consulting staff. Served as freshman academic advisor.
Manager of Curriculum Integration Support and Senior Instructional Designer
Academic Computing 2004 – 2006
Dual reporting structure to CIO and MIT Provost. Oversaw staff of academic technology specialists; performed outreach to faculty on best practices for incorporating technology into teaching. Supervised Undergraduate Research Opportunities (UROP) students working in department. Operated campus multimedia development center for video editing, digitization, and visualization. Provided support for MIT iCampus student and faculty initiatives and for Stellar, MIT’s course management system. Managed budget for AC/OEIT Educational Technology Consulting Group.
Co-founder of Ed Tech Partners user group and Crosstalk seminar series.
Manager of Educational Design and Development
Academic Media Production Services 2000 – 2004
Oversaw web, graphic design and technical writing staff for the creation of education-based projects in a cost-recovery organization. Served as instructional designer and project manager for programs utilizing video, multimedia, distance learning and computer-mediated communication. Designed educational software for medical, public health, and architecture courses. Instructional designer and support coordinator for new Stellar course management system. Initiated the first MIT OpenCourseWare video segments and assisted in OCW outreach efforts. Established billing models and salary equity rates.
Senior Faculty Liaison
Academic Computing 1992 – 2000
Acted as consultant for faculty using technology in teaching. Edited educational computing newsletter, organized and delivered training and outreach events promoting education and instructional technology (including comprehensive January term curricula for all MIT community members), and provided consulting on the use of multimedia by students and faculty. Co-author of MIT’s first official web page. Created and operated campus New Media Center facility. Worked on TEAL (Technology-Enabled Active Learning) project for innovation in physics education as well as other initiatives stemming from Project Athena.
Brown University
Faculty Liaison and Manager of Computing Help Desk
Computing and Information Services 1989 – 1992
Coordinated in-person, phone, and e-mail consulting for campus clients at central help desk. Managed both professional and student staff. Created role of Faculty Liaison for instructional computing assistance.
Assistant Project Coordinator
Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship 1987-1989
Oversaw classroom integration of Intermedia, a pre-Web networked hypermedia system; wrote user manuals, articles and other documents relating to Intermedia and IRIS research; authored NASA-funded lunar geology software and an Intermedia web, Exploring the Moon; acted as public relations by giving presentations about Intermedia at conferences, trade shows, and invited venues.
Teaching Experience:
Guest Instructor
Harvard University 2010-2011
Deliver adjunct lectures on educational technology for popular CS50 course as well as mentoring for student projects; co-taught independent graduate study class in learning technologies.
Instructor
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2000-2007
Designed and taught first-year advising seminars on educational media, including instructional design, reflective practice, web design, animation, video production, and Web 2.0 technologies.
Adjunct Faculty
Boston University School of Education 1993-1998
Designed and taught new course on using the Internet in education, including Web, search engines, portals, push technologies, and creation of online teaching materials.
Education:
2004 Ed.D. in Curriculum and Teaching, Boston University School of Education. Coursework included study abroad at the University of London. Dissertation title: The Emergence of Network-Based Education, a study of faculty engagement with the development of distributed courseware.
1993 Ed.M. in Educational Media and Technology, Boston University School of Education, Boston, Massachusetts.
1987 A.B. in Cognitive Science, A.B. in Anthropology/Archaeology, Brown University, Providence, R.I.
Awards and Honors:
2007 Selected for EDUCAUSE Institute for Learning Technology Leadership
2004 Steven Wade Neiterman Award, MIT. Given annually to an IT professional who demonstrates collaborative problem solving, coaching, team building, and sharing knowledge.
2004 Pi Lambda Theta international honor society of educators
Selected Presentations and Publications:
“CS50 - The Best Course I Have Ever Taken”, in Game Changers, (ed.) Diana Oblinger, EDUCAUSE. Forthcoming book chapter, 2012.
EDUCAUSE 2011 (Fostering Pedagogical Innovation Through IT Partnerships)
Harvard IT Summit 2011 (The Mobile FAS Student – part of panel Mobile Applications to Improve Teaching and Learning)
Annual Projects Report, FAS Presidential Instructional Technology Fellowships. Editor, Harvard University internal publication, 2008-2011.
Symposium on Education and Technology 2011. Technologies to Support Pedagogical Innovation in the Harvard Undergraduate Curriculum. Conference for Spanish and Latin American scholars, sponsored by the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and the Real Colegio Complutense.
Open Ed Tech Conference (Barcelona), 2010. Invited speaker on Harvard initiatives in educational technology
NERCOMP 2007-2010 Annual Conferences (Partnering to Build and Support a New Curriculum; Assessing Educational Media Projects; Social Computing Tools for Advising, Instruction, and Admissions; Tracking Our Progress, Planning Our Future)
RINET 2007 Keynote Speaker (Web 2.0 and the High School Curriculum)
NMC Conference 2006-2007 (What Educators Can Learn from World of Warcraft and MMORPGS; Using Blogs and Wikis for Teaching)
ED-MEDIA 2006 (with Rachel Or-Bach): Towards a Collaboration Space for Higher Education Teachers – The MIT iLab Project.
“Models for Open Learning”, (with Philip D. Long), in Reusing Online Resources: A Sustainable Approach to eLearning, (Ed.) Allison Littlejohn. Kogan Page, London, 2003.
Copywriter and editor for MIT publications The Athena Insider and The Ed Tech Times, 1992-2007.
Other Professional and Volunteer Engagements:
NERCOMP Annual Conference Committee, 2010, 2011 (track chair)
Editorial Review Board, EDUCAUSE Quarterly, 2010 - present
Member, Boston Area Ed Tech Alliance, Women in Technology Leadership, and Society for Information Management (SIM)
Troop Leader, Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts, 2011 - present