| Steve Breiner is the Associate Director of ITS for Instructional Computing at Appalachian State University and a member of the Board of the UNC TLT Collaborative. He holds a Ph. D. in Analytical Chemistry from Duke University and was, until a number of years ago, teaching in the Department of Chemistry at Appalachian. At that time, he was placed on special assignment by Academic Affairs to coordinate a number of exploratory projects at Appalachian dealing with influences of computers on teaching and learning from both faculty and student standpoints. Over time, the special projects evolved into essential ones and Breiner was asked to create new division of Information Technology Services called Instructional Computing Services (ICS) to address the adaptation of computing to the pedagogical needs of the university community. As the leader of ICS at Appalachian, he coordinates projects to grant laptop computers to faculty in return for their participation in a comprehensive curriculum of training workshops dealing with uses of the WebCT course package and other instructionally related computing efforts. Eventually, ICS acquired the responsibility to offer general computer skills training to faculty and staff at Appalachian. His professional interests involve acting as consultant, provocateur, and troubleshooter for faculty developing their own instructional uses of computers, improvement of instruction through the use of computing, and in developing criteria for assessing the effectiveness of such efforts. His personal interests involve a long-standing association with firefighting and emergency medical service. |