NYC – AERA 2018 – Michelle Fulks Read, Ph.D.

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By Michelle ReadApril 21, 2018

Greg and I jaunted off again for this year’s AERA conference, held in New York City. This time, we took Abby too. We visited the 911 Memorial with Joan [Hughes] and her husband, Lee, and took in a Broadway show, Wicked, with them as well. Of course, we visited Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Like D.C., there is just too much to do in one short trip to NYC.

The AERA conference itself was fantastic as usual. This year, I didn’t present, which was a first. I attended many sessions and took back many thoughts to share with my team at Texas State.

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Testimonials

Michelle is a talented instructional designer and instructor! I have taken professional development courses she taught as well as worked on developing multiple courses with her. As an instructor, she is clear and focused. She understands how to use different learning techniques to effectively get the content to her students. Working with Michelle on course design and development is a breeze. She is intuitive and comes up with creative solutions to issues that arise. I always look forward to opportunities to work with Michelle Read.

Jennifer GarciaTexas State University

Michelle was my instructional coach when I was developing online courses for Texas State University. She was creative, detail-oriented, and helped me create courses grounded in experiential and relational pedagogy. I highly recommend her for curriculum development, instructional technology support and pedagogical strategizing.

Christine NortonTexas State University

Michelle was a great help to me as I transitioned a course from a face-to-face setting to a totally online delivery. Michelle is a pleasure to work with. When I had problems, she had solutions. She knows her stuff in this field, and responds to questions quickly. We should all be so lucky to have someone of Michelle’s caliber on our teams.

Ray NiekampTexas State University

I met Michelle Read through the Texas State University’s Advance Instructional Design Course, which aids instructors in developing fully on-line courses. I had the good fortune to be able to take this course twice (for two different courses) and Michelle was my mentor on my second time through. To be honest, the first time I had an instructor whose approach was very hands off and not too much feedback. Michelle was the polar-opposite; she clearly explained why I had to do the (sometimes tedious) lesson planning before I actually committed to lesson building. This made the process clear and reasonable, even if it did take more time. In the end, I saw that I was able to critique my work as I was building; whereas, the first time around I had to critique my work not only after I built the course, but sometimes as the course was running. She also helped me to identify my strengths and weaknesses in course planning so that I can continue to build courses that I know will meet the universi… Read more

Elizabeth KanonTexas State University

Michelle knows her stuff from multiple perspectives as an Educator, Instructional Designer, Student and Parent. She blends all her experiences and insights into a pool of resources, ideas and concepts to convey learning opportunities for today’s diverse student population. She also digs deep to understand the challenges of a particular course, concept(s) and/or delivery vehicle to small, medium and large sections of classes here at Texas State University too. She is/was a pleasure to work with and gives super feedback too for improvement.

Kevin JettonTexas State University

I have known Michelle since 2008. Her extensive research experiences have led Michelle to have the fullest capabilities to conduct her own research as well as guide students in their own research experiences. Since 2010, she has been co-researching with me, developing school case studies of technology integration. In these case studies, we surveyed, interviewed, and observed all students, teachers, and school leaders in 4 schools that ranged in terms of their school population SES and urbanicity characteristics. Michelle took the lead on one of these school case studies. She organized the data collection schedule, corresponded with our school contact, managed the consent procedures for parents, students, teachers, and the school leaders, engaged in data collection, analysis, and writing of the results. She developed a unique and independent research topic for her dissertation, which examined the instructional design elements and effectiveness of an online professional development exper… Read more

Joan HughesThe University of Texas at Austin

Michelle is an outstanding technology expert! She is able to make new and complex technology easy to understand. During my time as a graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin, there were several occasions when Michelle helped me to effectively use Zotero, a software designed to make writing citations easier. Additionally, she was able to help me make modifications to Microsoft Word so that I was more able to effectively edit my scholarship.

Langston ClarkThe University of Texas at San Antonio

I have known Michelle Read for a number of years. She was a graduate student in the University of Texas College of Education, where I am a faculty member. She also worked in what was then called the IDEA Studio, a technology resource center for faculty support. Michelle was extraordinarily patient and skilled in helping me with all sorts of classroom technology and document formatting issues. Beyond just showing me what I was doing wrong when something would not work, she had always had innovative and useful suggestions about new approaches I might take with technology, and a real understanding of what I was trying to do, and might be able to do but had not even considered, in curriculum development and research.

Jill MarshallThe University of Texas at Austin

Michelle Read is a well respected and intelligent colleague that I had the pleasure to learn and work with for many years. She has a passion for education, students, teachers, and technology. Her teaching and research experience brings countless ideas that inspire those around her.

Gloria Gonzales DholakiaHanger, Inc.

Michele worked with me designing and supporting several technology projects for my teacher education classes at UTAustin. She was knowledgeable, helpful and thorough. Her own teaching experience as well as her doctoral coursework enabled her to provide extremely valuable assistance. In addition to helping me design class technology projects she was always willing to guest lecture in my classes teaching students the technology skills they needed to enjoy the project. Michelle was a GREAT help. It was a delight to work with her.

Dolly LambdinThe University of Texas at Austin

Michelle brings a wealth of experience as an educator to her scholarly work, having served in positions at a range of schools and grade levels. She is a great team player, and is enthusiastic and energetic.

Debby KalkLaureate Education

I have known Michelle for many years. She worked closely with faculty at the University of Texas where she helped us create technology solutions for teaching. She is very knowledgeable about all kinds of technology from web based applications to hardware such as a variety of tablets my students were using. I typically dropped in on Michelle to ask for help and she was always ready to do so. Besides being very good at what she does she is friendly and makes learning with her fun!

Mary Claire GerwelsThe University of Texas at Austin

Michelle worked with me as a guide/facilitator in the development of an online (hybrid) MBA management course. Michelle was very effective in helping me shape specific course requirements to fit within the context of the online activity. I definitely recommend Michelle’s work as an Instructional Designer.

Dennis SmartTexas State University

Dr. Read is the ultimate professional. For several semesters, she taught an online course in a program I coordinated. Teaching online can be a challenge, but she handled it all with great care for her adult undergraduate students. She demonstrated current expertise and good teaching.

Sue CurreySt. Edward's University

In her role as a graduate research assistant in the IDEA Studio, Michelle excelled at working with people. She has a strong understanding of the learning theory and instructional design principles that underpin the job, but more importantly, she knows how to collaborate with faculty and build the trust needed to encourage instructors to try new tools and strategies with their students. I give her my highest recommendation.

Karen FrenchThe University of Texas at Austin

As a colleague at The University of Texas at Austin, Michelle was always excited to tackle new problems and to initiate collaborative projects. Michelle’s positive attitudes toward education and training make her eager to help those who are struggling and to provide guidance to newcomers. While working in teams, Michelle takes ownership of her responsibilities and is willing to accommodate to the needs and to learn from the strengths of others in her team. She is focused, driven, and experienced.

Royce KimmonsBrigham Young University

Like Michelle, I was a student in the Learning Technologies program at UT Austin. I took a number of courses with Michelle, and always valued her contribution to our course work and discussions. Her class contributions were both critical and insightful. In one doctoral seminar class, Michelle gave me detailed peer feedback on a draft of my dissertation literature review I found to be crucial as I took the first tentative steps in my dissertation research. I value Michelle as both a colleague and a friend and look forward to opportunities to work with her in future, now that we have both completed the program!

Jason RosenblumSelf-Employed

Dr. Read was the instructional designer assigned to assist me with the redesign of one of my college courses to make it fully online. She is a master at her craft. The process of redesigning this course was hard work and joyful at once. Michelle is detailed-oriented, clear, concise and thorough. She never ‘let me off the hook’ or completed any of the course design for me. Instead, she stayed with me, coached me, guided me, taught me and encouraged me; but she let me do the work of learning how to put the course into an online format. She was a joy to work with because, despite the hard and sometimes tedious aspects of the process, Dr. Read could be counted on to be relaxed, funny, responsive and available. In short, she is a wonderful human being to work with and learn from

Julia MerittTexas State University

Michelle taught me everything I know about Faculty Development. In my time working with Michelle at Texas State University, she has been an invaluable mentor and friend. Her knowledge of instructional design and faculty development is extremely impressive. Michelle manages faculty development engagements professionally and with ease. I would happily recommend her for any instructional design or faculty development position

Tamarin ButcherTexas State University

Michelle is a talented, dedicated instructional designer who brings out the best in her clients and colleagues. I have worked with Michelle for four years in the Office of Distance and Extended Learning at Texas State University, and she has mentored me in my transition from Online Course Developer to Instructional Designer. Michelle’s expertise, empathy and sense of humor make her a great colleague. Her passion for her work shines in every project, and her whole heart goes into everything she does. She would be an asset to any team.

Leslie HaleTexas State University

Dr. Read routinely designs courses, trains faculty, and facilitates learning that requires accessibility to be front and center. Her passion to expand and increase awareness regarding accessibility in the workplace and classroom at Texas State University cannot be denied.

Evan PickrelTexas State University

Michelle is a fabulous instructional designer and trainer! Over the course of several months, she served as my coach while I developed a new online technical writing course for upper division college students at Texas State University. Michelle has continued to mentor me in my online teaching and she serves as a generous resource whenever I’m searching for solutions for a wide variety of technical and instructional problems. I have relied on her online teaching experience, subject expertise, and extraordinarily warm demeanor throughout my years of working with her.

Laura Ellis-LaiTexas State University

I have worked with Dr. Read in several capacitates as a faculty member at Texas State University. I have participated in numerous professional development opportunities which she presented, worked with her on an instructional redesign of a course, and explored potential learning management systems for accessibility. Dr. Read is extremely knowledgeable about instructional technology. I learned so much about using active learning strategies during virtual instruction as well as creative ways to assess student learning. Dr. Read is always professional, confident, competent, and friendly. Clients feel comfortable with her personally as she values inclusivity. She is a patient educator and has the ability to assist clients with whatever level of expertise they present.

Dr. Glenna BillingsleyTexas State University

Michelle has worked hard to obtain a breadth and depth of knowledge that makes her an expert in many areas of Instructional Design and Development. However, it is how she is able to pass along this expertise to others that makes those that work with Michelle rave on about her kindness, honesty, and optimism. She is an excellent trainer and coach. The clients that work with Michelle know that they are supported and that their courses will be of the highest quality. As a colleague, Michelle is happy to attribute credit to the correct people and to provide assistance on projects when things might not go exactly to plan. She works hard to show gratitude to those around her. She exhibits one of the best characteristics of a leader: holding people accountable while tirelessly advocating for them and their goals and desires. Michelle’s intelligence, gratitude, and leadership would be invaluable to any team.

Brian SutherlandTexas State University

Michelle is motivated, forward-thinking, and hugely passionate. She serves on the Program Advisory Committee at Center for Advanced Legal Studies as a Distance Education Specialist where I am the Director of Outreach and Career Services. Michelle has extensive experience in instructional design, technology integration, and faculty development. She brings integrity and intelligence to her work and is someone I trust and look to for guidance and advice. Michelle offers wonderful insight and perspective, and her presence and expertise have a significant and positive impact on our organization.

Tami RiggsCenter for Advanced Legal Studies

Michelle brings her vast knowledge of the classroom and feel for faculty to her work as an instructional designer. Her passion for enabling instructors to be their best selves is apparent in everything she does. In our work together at Texas State, I always enjoyed talking through design scenarios with her because I knew she would bring her experiences and unique perspective to the table. Her work is an asset to our field

Kasey FordThe University of Texas at Austin

I have worked with Michelle for 2 years and have found her to be an extremely helpful and capable teammate who adds both knowledge, humor, and a spirit of comradery to all collaborative projects. She has shared mentoring responsibilities in my onboarding and has provided invaluable assistance in the design and development of course building and course revision projects. She combines strong technical skills with even stronger instructional design theory and practice. As someone has has often reached out to her for advice, help, and encouragement, I can only echo and wholeheartedly agree with the recommendations of my colleagues in support of Dr. Read.

Paul HollingsworthTexas State University

As Michelle Read’s colleague at the Office of Distance and Extended Learning at Texas State University (TXST) for the past two years, I’ve benefited from her knowledge in pedagogical theory, tireless work ethic, and willingness to do whatever it takes to create a product that will translate the stakeholder’s vision into reality. Michelle is directly responsible for leading faculty professional development for our department. She is integral in planning, developing, and implementing trainings that are based in scholarly-based researched practices and procedures. She also scrutinizes evaluations to make each training better than it was before. Michelle is open and shares her resources and knowledge freely. An example that showcases this is her willingness to use her many contacts in the education industry to benefit the trainings TXST would hold by supplying keynote speakers and education experts in multiple disciplines. She is not afraid to jump in and help other instructional des… Read more

Mary AndersonTexas State University

I have worked with Dr. Read for several years, and she is an amazing leader, educator, and listener. She encourages her faculty students to strive to make better courses for their students with enthusiasm and understanding. She is well organized, a great communicator, and extremely easy to work with. I enjoy working with her one-on-one on resource access problems, as well as in a group discussing common copyright issues.

Stephanie ToweryTexas State University

Michelle is a great instructional designer and colleague! She is a someone you can talk through a design challenge with to maximize student learning. Also, she is fierce advocate for students with disabilities. Most of all, she is easy to work with and is so personable in her consultations.

Valerie GomezHarvard University