Award for Outstanding Service in Digital Equity, Recipient 2006

Dr. Abbott is the 2006 recipient of the Outstanding Service in Digital Equity Award.  She was recognized by the Society for Information Technology in Education at its annual conference. 

 

About this Award

The Outstanding Service in Digital Equity Award (OSDE) was established to recognize and encourage outstanding scholarship and service in the area of digital equity and increase awareness of the variety and range of successful approaches taken through teacher education for increasing equity over the many digital divides that affect our societies today including economic, cultural, physical and mental diversities. SITE President Niki Davis originated this award in 2002 in anticipation that such recognition in the area of digital equity and teacher education will stimulate scholarship and service to:

• expand the knowledge base relative to teacher education;

• promote equity in technology and teacher education; and

• disseminate information nationally and internationally. 

The presentation of this award is also intended to emphasize SITE’s concern for equity in information technology and teacher education.

The award is judged by the leadership of two SITE committees: Equity and Social Justice, and Special Educational and Assistive Technologies, with any necessary arbitration by the SITE President. These committees are also responsible for stimulating nominations for OSDE.

 

Criteria & Summary Information

During 2005-2006 academic year, Dr. Abbott is working as a senior faculty member on the UAB ADVANCE grant, a $3.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation. ADVANCE is designed to promote issues related to female faculty members in science and engineering. The UAB ADVANCE grant was funded for 2003-2008.

 

In 1985, Dr. Abbott began her contributions to use of technology in education by directing the first computer lab in the School of Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). In the 1980’s, she conducted research on use of CAI for remediation in mathematics as well as conducted the evaluation of the Computer Competency Initiative for the State of Alabama, administered by the Alabama Commission on Higher Education. From 1993 through 2000, she continued her commitment to use of technology through her role as evaluator in the Alabama Supercomputing Program to Inspire Computational Research in Education (ASPIRE). This program prepared teachers to use high performance computers to solve real world problems; the teaching of computational science by teachers inspired many students in the State of Alabama to select careers in technology, computer engineering and computer science although all of these fields were rapidly changing and emerging. Using the model for the ASPIRE program, originally developed for in-service teachers, Dr, Abbott implemented this program for pre-service teachers in the School of Education at UAB, with funding from EOT-Paci and the EdGrid program. In the development and implementation of this program, systemic change was institutionalized in the way that pre-service and in-service teachers are prepared. This included the development of a new course in the UAB Department of Mathematics and modules for infusion of computational science into the “methods” courses for teaching math and science to secondary pre-service teachers.

In her work as ASPIRE evaluator, she observed that females were as successful as males in terms of the successes in computational science. Consequently, Dr. Abbott authored a report that described the gender equity that she observed in this program and the ASPIRE program was selected by the Gender Equity Expert Panel as 1 of 5 (out of over 100 reports submitted) designated as “Promising Programs for Females in Mathemtaics, Science, and Technology” by the U. S. Department of Education in 2000. Dr. Abbott was also selected as the recipient of the RCI “Outstanding Contributor to Supercomputing Education in the State of Alabama in 2001." Her service at the national level regarding technology includes being a member of the  Education Committee for Supercomputing ’94 and Supercomputing ’95. Additional service included  university-wide professional development sessions for professors at UAB in conjunction with Sigma Xi and conducted by Dr. Bob Panoff. Twenty nine faculty members from across campus including the Dean of the UAB School of Medicine, attended these introductory sessions. She also coordinated a 1-week National Computational Science Institute (NCSI) for university faculty in schools of education in the southeast region.  

In the last two decades, Dr. Abbott has been awarded approximately $6 million for implementing programs in technology in education. Most recently, she was a Co-PI for the Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Alabama at Huntsville funded by NSF. Graduate students in computer science, mathematics and biology provided assistance in use of computer modeling and scientific visualization in K-12 classrooms.  In addition, she infuses use of technology into all of her teaching at UAB, including the courses. In 2004, Dr. Abbott was the recipient of the UAB President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching from the School of Education.

 

Dr. Abbott’s scholarly activities also include articles and reports describing uses of technology in education as well as the intersection of gender and technology. At the present time, she is the lead author and is completing the “Gender Equity in Instructional, Educational, and Information Technology,” and coauthor on "Gender Equity in Science, Engineering, and Technology" chapter in the Gender Equity in Education Handbook to be published by Lawrence Erlbaum in 2006. Although a full list of her publications is available on her website. She has presented at SITE since 2002.  Selected articles and presentations include:

 

Gibbs, V.K., Watts, S., Abbott, G., & Bievenue, L. (2005). Use of Inquiry with  Computer Models and Visualization in an Urban 8^th Grade Science Class. 

 

Society for Information  Technology & Teacher Education Intl. Conf. (16th Annual Conf., March 1-5, Pheonix, AZ), XX.

                  

Harnisch, D., Comstock, S., Moore, S., Bruce. B., Jakobsson, E., Abbott, G., & Gabric, K. (March, 2003). Scientists become Teachers.  Society for Information Technology and Teacher  Education Intl. Conf., Albuquerque, NM.

 

Abbott, G. (2000). Opportunities for Enhancing Equity in Classrooms through Use of Modeling and Visualization, Proceedings of the Workshop to Integrate Computer-based Modeling and Scientific Visualization in K-12 Teacher Education Programs, Arlington, VA. (Invited Paper)

 

Abbott, G., & Ziebarth, J. (1995).  Girls and Supercomputing. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association. San Francisco, CA.