Dr. Jinxia He is an Instructional Designer at Montclair State University. Before that, she worked as an Instructional Design Technologist at Atlanta University Center. She received her PhD with a specialization in Instructional System Design from University of Central Florida. Her research interests focus on using instructional strategies in online teaching and learning, building online learning communities and team based learning especially virtual teams, as well as the application of emerging technologies in education.

Andy Cui is an Instructional Designer at Montclair State University. He holds a MS degree of Instructional Technology from the University of Southern Mississippi and is currently a Ph.D. Candidate of Instructional Design and Technology at Virginia Tech.  His research interests include studying social presence in online learning, the development of online community, online communication, students’ personal traits such as locus of control, use of mobile devices, especially cell phones in teaching and learning.

Laura Nicosia, PhD, is an Associate Professor of English and the Director of English Education at Montclair State University. She specializes in American literature, YA literature, science fiction & fantasy, and explores uses of technology and social media to improve teaching and learning. She serves as State Representative for the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents and is President of the New Jersey Council of Teachers of English. In March, Dr. Nicosia was presented with the New Jersey Council of Teachers of English 2012 Outstanding English Language Arts Educator Award and was named as a Distinguished Faculty at the New Jersey Higher Education Showcase of Exemplary Practices: Excellence in Teacher Preparation event in Princeton in April.

Jerry Alan Fails is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey. His primary focus of research is Human-Computer Interaction, with a current focus on technologies that support children’s creativity, mobility, and collaboration.  He currently directs an intergenerational design team (Kidsteam) at Montclair State University.  The team consists of young children and adults who work together as partners to improve and design new technologies. He received his Ph.D in Computer Science from the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland in 2009, where he was an active member of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) for six years while working with Dr. Allison Druin and with the Kidsteam there. In 2003, he received his MS in Computer Science from Brigham Young University where he worked with Dr. Dan Olsen Jr. on perceptual user interfaces.

Ting Ho is a senior member of the faculty of the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, where he serves as Coordinator of the Theory/Composition program. His interest in the development of online course delivery, especially in the arts disciplines, is the application of sound pedagogical means of engagement, content delivery and assessment. Having been through the rigors of online course design and delivery since 2008, Dr. Ho chairs the University’s College of the Arts Distance Learning Committee, which oversees online/hybrid course offerings by disciplines in that College. Dr. Ho is also one of two representatives to Quality Matters, an organization devoted to quality assurance for online education that has received national recognition for its peer-based approach and continuous improvement in online education and student learning.  Dr. Ho is certified in the Quality Matters Rubric and as a Peer Reviewer.  Dr. Ho also mentors for the Prior Learning Assessment program for Thomas Edison State College, an online program that grants college credit for life experience.

Gregg Festa is a veteran K-12 teacher, school technology specialist and instructional media designer who founded and now directs The ADP Center for Teacher Preparation and Learning Technologies at Montclair State University. Gregg has presented and published widely on a variety of issues related to teaching, learning and technology and has recently been quoted in several publications including Edutopia, where Montclair State University’s Teacher Education Program was rated one of the ten best in the nation, in part, for it’s innovative use of technology to support the simultaneous renewal of practicing teachers, teacher educators and teacher education students. Gregg, the 2007 NJ Technologist of the Year, is nationally recognized for his work in designing “Classrooms for the Future”, creating and coordinating the Verizon funded Digital Backpacks program for K-12 educators and founding the federally supported Silk City Media Workshop, a pioneering after-school program that engages inner city kids in the process of using digital media as a tool to express themselves and share their work globally.

Dr. Gina M. Miele, assistant professor of Italian and former director of the Coccia Institute for the Italian Experience in America at MSU, received her Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University in 2003.  While she specializes in nineteenth and twentieth century Italian folktales, particularly those of Luigi Capuana and Italo Calvino, she teaches courses on various periods, authors and genres of the Italian literary tradition.  She has published articles in Italica, Marvels and Tales, Fabula and Italian Quarterly.  She is a contributor to the Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales.  Her essays and book reviews on Italian American studies can be consulted in the Harvard College Journal of Italian American History and Culture, the Italian American Review, the Paterson Literary Review and Primo.  Dr. Miele is a regular instructor of hybrid courses at MSU and has experimented with Second Life, Elluminate, and Twitter in the Italian language classroom.

Dr. Jon Landis is a Development Executive with Apple Inc. He is a former professor in the College of Education from Millersville University where he was the graduate coordinator of the Leadership Program and the Coordinator of the CyberSafe Institute.  Jon holds his Ph.D. in Sociology, a Masters degree in Education Leadership, and a B.S. in Chemistry.  He has served as a chemistry instructor, principal, and curriculum director. Dr. Landis speaks nationally on the risks and opportunities associated with mobile technologies.