Faculty News: Farewell and Hello EDTEC Department Chair Retires After 30 Years Dr. Pat Harrison created the Department of Educational Technology at San Diego State University and distinguished himself as its chair for 30 years. It has been his vision, leadership, commitment, and drive to continuously self-assess, revise, and improve that has carried the department to its current national and international reputation of excellence. In January 2000, Dr. Harrison retired, and on January 29th faculty, friends, and colleagues convened for his retirement dinner party. He was roasted and toasted, but mostly colleagues spoke of his great vision and dedication, which has manifested itself in the department we enjoy today. Thank you Pat! New EDTEC Faculty Members The Department of Educational Technology received approval for three faculty positions to respond to needs generated by the new joint doctoral program, the department's plan to radically restructure the educational technology curriculum and processes, and new credential requirements for pre-service teacher education. All three positions will be hired at either the Assistant or Associate Professor level. The department invited candidates with a doctorate in Educational Technology, Educational Computing, Educational Psychology, or a closely related field to apply. The search committee began screening applications on December 15, 1999. From over 70 applicants, eight final candidates were selected for on-campus interviews between March 20 and April 7. While on campus, final candidates interviewed with department faculty and administrators at the College and University level. Student input was a consideration in the final selection process. Applicants taught a short segment of a class and input from students was gathered. In late April 2000, the department announced appointments for two of the three faculty positions: Vanessa Dennan and Minjuan Wang. Both are hired as Assistant Professors and will begin teaching at SDSU this Fall 2000. Vanessa Dennen is a Ph.D. candidate in the Instructional Systems Technology department at Indiana University. She earned her first masters degree in Instructional Design, Development, and Evaluation at Syracuse University and a second masters degree in Educational Psychology. Her undergraduate degree is in Radio/Television/Film, which she received from Northwestern University. Currently, Vanessa is working as a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Media Study, and as an adjunct faculty member in the Educational Technology Certificate program at the University of Buffalo. While at Indiana University, she served as an Associate Instructor for W200: Microcomputers in Education, receiving both an Outstanding Associate Instructor award for her teaching and the Kemp Award for instructional materials she developed for the course. Minjuan Wang is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies, and a research coordinator for CTIE (Center for Technology Innovations in Education), University of Missouri-Columbia. From 1990 to 1995, she studied archeology, changed to Chinese literature and completed her B.A. from Peking (Beijing) University, P.R. China. Minjuan came to the U.S. in 1995 and obtained an M.A. in comparative literature from the Pennsylvania State University in 1997. At Penn State, she taught Chinese and developed computer-assisted language learning (CALL) programs. At the University of Missouri, she co-taught classes in Higher Educational Technology and in Human-Computer Interactions and Interface Design.