iROC: Power Up Learning and Pedagogy with Technology

Please join us for the next iROC seminar on a special day and time -  Monday, October 19, at noon - when Ludmila Smirnova, PhD, professor of Education, will present Power Up Learning and Pedagogy with Technology. 

With the Covid-19 pandemic, educators and learners everywhere were forced online with scant notice. For many, it has been a travail. Instead, this may be the opportunity we have been waiting for to power up learning and pedagogy. In this talk, Dr. Smirnova will describe a sabbatical project is that addresses just this opportunity. Drawing upon twenty years of intensive research on how to use digital technology effectively in the classroom, she will describe her efforts to write a book that captures this moment. 

When arriving in the US from Russia in 2000, Dr. Smirnova had little experience with digital technology. But it caught her interest, and she began devouring the literature and testing technology tools actively in her classes.  In time, Ludmila became an expert on Web 2.0 technology.  She began collaborating with an Israeli educator to create massive online courses on Moodle and other digital technologies. The courses were taught to audiences of thousands, representing educators from every corner of the world. Key to Dr. Smirnova’s success was a strong background in and commitment to constructivist, student-centered, inquiry-based, and collaborative pedagogy.  She has realized that while digital technology is good for replicating face-to-face lectures, it is outstanding for creating alternative forms of teaching that have not yet found the place they deserve in American education. The current widespread move to online education thus represents an important chance to correct this imbalance.  It is not just the power of technology that deserves recognition, but the potential that technology brings to power up pedagogy and learning. 

From the beginning of her educational career in Russia, Ludmila Smirnova was viewed as an innovator, always shaking up the old ways with new insights and approaches.  She created innovative schools in southern Russia to address ecological education and the arts.  She pioneered study abroad in Western countries.  Discovering the Montessori Method in the Netherlands, Dr. Smirnova trained in both the International and American approaches to Montessori teaching and designed the first two Montessori schools to open in Southern Russia since the Communist Revolution banned the system.  As a professor of education, she supervised six doctoral dissertations in comparative education.  She was Dean of the prestigious School of Foreign Languages at the Volgograd Pedagogical University for a decade before coming to the U.S.

After serving as an exchange professor at Ramapo College of New Jersey, with whom her school in Russia had a long-term collaborative relationship, Ludmila came to Mount Saint Mary College in 2001.  At the Mount, she has taught many courses in the education program, outfitting each with the appropriate digital technology.  She has been the counselor of the Kappa Delta Pi honor society for more than 15 years. 

Power Up Learning and Pedagogy with Technology will take place via Zoom at 12:00 p.m. on Monday, October 19.  Please visit this site to register for the event.  Once you sign up, you’ll receive an email with the meeting link.

** Approved for FYE Academic Success **  (Attendance will be taken via Zoom participant list.)

For more information about this or any of the iROC presentations, or to volunteer as or recommend an iROC speaker, please contact the coordinators of the iROC program - Dr. Evan Merkhofer, Assistant Professor of Biology, 845-569-3368, evan.merkhofer@msmc.edu or Barbara Petruzzelli, Director of the Library, 845-569-3601, barbara.petruzzelli@msmc.edu.