Associate Professor Christine Greenhow leads a course with in-person and online students.
During the 2018 All-University Awards, Associate Professor Christine Greenhow will be recognized with a Teacher-Scholar Award by Michigan State University.
Greenhow is one of six faculty selected through a university-wide competition. The annual honor celebrates faculty early in their careers who have demonstrated excellence in teaching and scholarship, with effective teaching approaches closely linked to and informed by their research. Greenhow is the 26th person in the College of Education and the 10th faculty member in her department to win this award in its 33-year history. The award is supported by the Office of University Development.
A scholar in the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education, Greenhow’s research in educational technology focuses on various formed of learning in social media contexts and the design of social media environments for learning and teaching. Recently, she has also been exploring how to make online learners feel more engaged and “socially present” in the classroom. Her research, also featured by Inside Higher Education, examined a unique course at MSU; she found robot technology helped distance learners feel more connected to their instructor on campus and other peers in the class.
New technologies—such as robot technologies and social media—can impact education in many ways, Greenhow said.
“It used to be that websites were controlled by a web master who dictated the content you saw and, to some extent, how you experienced it. Now, social media that allows people to create, share and distribute ideas in text, visuals, sound, etc.,” she explained. “It’s changed how and with whom people communicate and collaborate. How can we leverage the possibilities of these new media to address persistent problems in education, like advancing new literacies, college access and so much more? That’s what motivates me. We need to understand how to leverage what we know to influence access to college and so much more.”
A Sign Language interpreter communicates with a student using the Beam robot technology in one of Greenhow’s courses.
Greenhow joined MSU in 2012. Among her accolades, she was selected to be part of the 2013-14 Lilly Teaching Fellows Program, an opportunity for tenure-stream faculty to engage in robust scholarship on effective practices in university teaching. Also in 2013, she was recognized with the Outstanding Early Career Scholar Award by the American Educational Research Association (AERA). In 2012, she was #5 on a list of Top-100 Web-Savvy Professors (Best Online Universities, LLC).
More recently, in 2017, a course led by Greenhow received accolades, winning an MSU AT&T Award for its unique and inclusive approach to helping all students learn through innovative, technology-enhanced teaching.
In fall 2017, Greenhow was selected as one of four fellows for the college’s inaugural Post-Tenure Research Fellowship, further recognition of her work.
“I am thrilled to work at a place that values transformative teaching and innovation,” Greenhow said about her work at MSU. “I work with great people who are pushing frontiers of knowledge and studying answers to pressing problems. MSU is an exciting, fast-pace and idea-rich place to work.”
Greenhow, as well as other faculty and graduate students from across MSU, will be honored at the All-University Awards on Feb. 6.
Learn more about the awards and the honorees on MSU Today.