Jody Early Selected for 2017 Distinguished Teaching Award

Associate Professor Jody Early was awarded the 2017 Distinguished Teaching Award for Innovation with Technology. Her award includes praise for being an outstanding teacher and mentor to students inside and outside the classroom, as well as the broad impact you have made on your department and beyond with your passion for innovations in eLearning methods and integrating technology in your pedagogy. Your use of technology not only positively impacts student learning, but it also benefits faculty, and inspires others to do more. The following quotes are exerpts from her nomination letters.

“…What truly sets Jody apart is her pedagogical leadership through example. She deeply understands the role of technology in advancing education as a practice of freedom and integrates digital platforms in service to social justice pedagogies."

Another wrote: “Jody’s innovation isn’t for the sake of itself. It is undertaken to help students experience transformative growth through reflection, to move beyond and challenge, and to ultimately help them lead others to transgress against societal boundaries and limitations. She is one of the most daring educators I know. Her passion and pursuit to explore pedagogies and technologies has spanned two decades. Beyond course design that melds the experiential with digital, and engages students in and with their communities, she is also exploring ways to apply technologies to improve population health. She views technology as a way to help people connect in ways that increase compassion, critical thinking, and intersectional dialogue.”

And another added: "Jody Early’s teaching represents the rare nexus of innovation, integration, and culture change in service to student learning. At an historical moment when higher education wrestles with the tensions of constant digital information and skilled discernment, Jody’s pedagogy provides outstanding models for technological synthesis and equity, an innovation to which we should all strive to achieve.”