FACULTY
Bill Cope
Dr. Bill Cope is a Research Professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is a former First Assistant Secretary in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs in the Australian Federal Government. He has also worked in or with a number of Australian universities including the University of Wollongong, the University of Technology, Sydney, James Cook University of North Queensland and RMIT University in Melbourne. He has a Ph.D. in history, and his current research interests include population and community diversity, theories and practices of pedagogy and new technologies of representation and communication, including the 'semantic web'. With Mary Kalantzis, he is co-author of a number of books, including: The Powers of Literacy , Falmer Press, London, 1993, Productive Diversity , Pluto Press, Sydney, 1997; A Place in the Sun: Re-Creating the Australian Way of Life , HarperCollins, Sydney, 2000; and Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures , Routledge, London, 2000, and New Learning : Elements of a Science of Education, Cambridge University Press, 2008. .
Mary Kalantzis
Dr Mary Kalantzis is Dean of the College of Education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Before this, she was Dean of the Faculty of Education, Language and Community Services at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, and President of the Australian Council of Deans of Education. She has been a Board Member of Teaching Australia: The National Institute for Quality Teaching and School Leadership, a Commissioner of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Chair of the Queensland Ethnic Affairs Ministerial Advisory Committee, Vice President of the National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia and a member of the Australia Council's Community Cultural Development Board. With Bill Cope, she is co-author or editor of a number of books, including: The Powers of Literacy: Genre Approaches to Teaching Literacy , Falmer Press, London, 1993, Productive Diversity , Pluto Press, Sydney, 1997; A Place in the Sun: Re-Creating the Australian Way of Life , HarperCollins, Sydney, 2000; Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures , Routledge, London, 2000, and New Learning: Elements of a Science of Education , Cambridge University Press, 2008.
STAFF
Linda Smith Tabb
Linda Smith Tabb is the Coordinator of Online Programs in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She did her undergraduate work at the University of Virginia, and has earned two Masters Degrees from UIUC, one in French Linguistics, and the other in Educational Policy Studies in the first cohort of GSE online. She is a doctoral student in EPS, and has also taught French at UIUC. Her career as an educator has included teaching both French and Spanish, as well as Western and Latin American humanities courses. She has taught at the middle school, high school, community college and university levels, both online and in the classroom. Her research interests include globalization and education, open source and open access in the teaching and learning of foreign languages, second language acquisition, language policy and study abroad. She has traveled to over forty countries on six continents, and enjoys learning languages. Her recent publications include A Chicken in Every Pot: One Laptop per Child: the trouble with global campaign promises published in the journal E-Learning in November, 2008 and a book chapter in the upcoming book Open Education and Education for Openness, edited by Michael A. Peters and Rodrigo Britez (Sense Publishers, 2008).
Laura English
Laura English is a graduate assistant in the Learning Design lab in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received a Bachelors degree in English history from Northern Illinois University with a cognate in Medieval Studies. In addition to graduate studies at Northern Illinois University in medieval and ancient history, she received a Masters Degree in Liberal Studies from North Central College. She is a philosophy of education doctoral student in Educational Policy Studies. She is a retiree and a lifelong learner with a passion for online education. Her research interests include the social construction of age, social policy relating to older adults in higher education, and critical gerontology.
