ULM professor chosen to represent Louisiana higher education on LACUE board

The Louisiana Association of Computer Using Educators (LACUE) recently selected Dr. Michael Beutner, ULM associate professor of instructional technology, to represent all Louisiana institutions of higher education.

Beutner, who was chosen through an internal search, joins the directors from each of Louisiana's eight educational regions as post-secondary director, a newly created position on the LACUE Board of Directors.

Founded in 1985, LACUE is a professional, non-profit organization that recognizes and promotes the use of technology in education.

"LACUE is an organization whose mission is to foster instructional technology and professional development to K-12 educators. Beutner exhibits passion for this through research and instruction as he works with the graduate students and educators at ULM. His addition to the board will be a great resource as we move forward,” said LACUE President Colleen Charles.

This appointment means more opportunities for ULM to lead in technology integration in Louisiana schools, said Beutner. He believes there are many ways to serve LACUE and Louisiana as post-secondary director.

"I look forward to serving on the LACUE Board with active leaders who are shaping the future of education in Louisiana," he said.

Beutner plans to continue directing the Louisiana High School Technology Challenge, a ULM-hosted online competition that has involved over 4,000 Louisiana high school students, with very favorable evaluations.

Though this year's Technology Challenge just concluded, Beutner has already begun organizing the online contest for 2014, anticipating its eighth consecutive year.

He also hopes to see widespread applications of open source online interactive audio applications, especially for young readers; teachers can use this free online software to create audio-enabled online educational applications.

The online software combines text, images, and audio for interactive audio applications like audio stories.

"I think audio is vastly underused on the Internet for learning purposes, especially for young inquisitive readers," he said. "This software can be used in special education, reading, literacy, and foreign language learning."

Currently, this software is unique to the ULM College of Education and Human Development graduate program of Instructional Technology.

Additionally, Beutner plans to encourage the use of "GeoGebra," one of the top 20 free "Web 2.0" software applications in the world, to meet new Common Core requirements that schools must address.

Used for math instruction, Beutner says "GeoGebra" software allows instructors to freely use, share, or even create interactive applets, or "virtual manipulatives," that are extremely interactive and intuititve for students learning unfamiliar math concepts.

Dr. Beutner received his Ph.D in Instructional Technology and his M.A. in Public Administration from Ohio University, and his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio.

He has been teaching at ULM since 2004.

He directs the ULM graduate program of Instructional Technology, a 100 percent online program.

He is also the holder of the Entergy Professorship in Instructional Technology in Teacher Education.