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University of Minnesota receives $2 million gift for learning technologies chair
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL ( 1/3/2008 ) -- The University of Minnesota has received a $2 million gift commitment from alumnus Dan Huebner for the creation of the Bonnie Westby Huebner Endowed Chair in Education and Technology in the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD). The endowment fund will support outstanding faculty in the field of school-based learning, with a strong emphasis on the value of technology in education. Aaron Doering will be the first faculty member to hold the chair. Doering is an assistant professor in CEHD's department of curriculum and instruction and education director of GoNorth!, an adventure learning project for K-12 classrooms. "I am honored, thrilled and incredibly thankful to Dan Huebner and his commitment to the college, education, technology and future scholars," said Doering. "This is the start of an incredible future for educational technology within the College of Education and Human Development. We will continue to make a difference within K-12 classrooms around the world as we rethink the way technology can transform education." The Bonnie Westby Huebner Endowed Chair in Education and Technology was established to honor the memory of Bonnie Westby Huebner, who passed away in 2005. Bonnie, wife of Dan Huebner, graduated from the university in 1953 with a bachelor's degree in education with distinction, later becoming an elementary school teacher in Minnesota and California schools. Dan is a 1955 graduate of the university's Institute of Technology, having earned a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering. "Bonnie was an enthusiastic advocate of excellence in learning and teaching," said Huebner. "The chair perpetuates her lifelong commitment to the primacy of education, representing an investment, in her memory, in teaching excellence through the advancement of technologies." As holder of the Westby Huebner Chair, Doering will work to explore multidisciplinary approaches to research, teaching, technology and service. The endowed chair supports a variety of supplemental activities and benefits, including travel, equipment, graduate student assistants and ongoing research. "Aaron is an ideal recipient of this extraordinary endowed chair," said professor Ruth Thomas, chair of the department of curriculum and instruction. "Doering is committed to the study of technology in the service of teaching and learning. He creates and studies technology-based adventure learning environments that engage learners from across the world. He is an excellent teacher, a prolific writer, a researcher whose work is breaking new ground and a deeply caring world citizen." The new chair advances ongoing work in CEHD in the learning technologies field. Faculty are currently engaged in a number of projects in areas such as social networking, distance learning and instructional design. "I am personally moved and we are all delighted by Mr. Huebner's extraordinary gift," said Darlyne Bailey, dean of the College of Education and Human Development. "The Westby Huebner endowment enables the college to greatly enrich and advance the critical partnership among the highest quality teaching, learning and technology. Dan's investment today of his family's commitment to these areas is an expression of their dream - one that I promise we will fulfill together." ---------- |
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