Year In Review

September 2010

Literacy Institute earns commendation

National commendation notes success of Summer Literacy Institute

Longwood’s Summer Literacy Institute was one of six programs in the country to earn a formal national commendation from the Affiliate Assembly of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) in September 2010.

The commendation recognized the institute’s support of the profession and alignment with AASL’s learning standards, program guidelines and principles. The Virginia Educational Media Association nominated the institute for the award for “providing teachers and school librarians with professional development and an opportunity to forge collaborative relationships.”

The Summer Literacy Institute attracts educators from across Virginia for its annual program and covers topics including reading aloud, storytelling, fluency and group writing. Participants include school librarians, literacy coaches, reading specialists and classroom teachers. The institute is cosponsored by the Literacy and Culture and the School Library Media graduate programs in the College of Education and Human Services.

New bridges improve Lancer Park access

New bridges provide Lancer Park with better access to main campus

From left: Alan Cook (Longwood Capital Planning & Construction), Farmville Town Manager Gerry Spates, Otis Brown (Longwood Real Estate Foundation), John Adams (rector of the Longwood Board of Visitors), Thomas Talley (English Construction), Gary Johnson (RK&K, the designers), SGA president Ben Brittain, Longwood President Patrick Finnegan, Eric Houghland (High Bridge Trail State Park), Ken Copeland (Longwood Real Estate Foundation) and Buddy Barron (Longwood Facilities Management).

Two new bridges that link Longwood’s main campus to Lancer Park, a nearby complex of university-managed apartments and athletics fields, opened Sept. 9, 2010.

Students who live in the apartments or wish to use the athletics fields can now access them from a new pedestrian bridge that crosses from Lancer Park over Third Street to Grove Street (near Buffalo Street) and a new vehicular bridge that crosses over a former railroad bed. Both bridges provide safer, more direct and more visually appealing access to Lancer Park, which is home to more than 250 students.

Otis Brown, president of the Longwood Real Estate Foundation, said the project “represents the pulling together of the two campuses.” The bulk of the project was financed through savings from the low-interest rate on a bond consolidation of all three Longwood-managed apartment communities that the Real Estate Foundation negotiated in 2007.

Technology institute earns statewide award

Showing teachers how to use technology earns governor’s award for institute

A Governor’s Technology Award was accepted by (from left) Bill Wilson of the SVRTC, Dr. Mano Talaiver of the ITTIP, and Dr. Deneese Jones and Dr. Ken Perkins of Longwood.

Longwood’s Institute for Teaching through Technology and Innovative Practices (ITTIP), with its partner the Southside Virginia Regional Technology Consortium (SVRTC), received a statewide technology award for its collaborative learning opportunities for teachers and students.

The ITTIP was one of two winners in the Innovation in Higher Education category in the Governor’s Technology Awards, presented Sept. 7, 2010, at the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Innovative Technology Symposium in Richmond. The award, presented by Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, was based on the ITTIP’s and SVRTC’s ongoing work of implementing and demonstrating the effective use of a wide range of technology tools and applications. These include interactive videoconferencing; a videobridge to connect multiple points; webconferencing; virtualization, an open-classroom server for wiki; Moodle, an open-source content management system; and Elgg, an open-source social networking engine.

“With limited resources these days, collaboration is critical for successful implementation of programs,” said Dr. Manorama “Mano” Talaiver, ITTIP director.

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