Fayard Family Professor of Literacy
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
- Digital literacy and special populations
- Media literacy
- Computer science, coding, and data literacy for special populations
- Elementary reading and writing
- Professional development
EDUCATION
- PhD, Curriculum and Instruction (concentration in digital literacy), Clemson University
- MS, Divergent Learning, Columbia College
- BS, Elementary Education, Clemson University
HONORS
- 2020, Recipient of the International Literacy Association Erwin Zolt Digital Literacy Game Changer Award
- 2014, Literacy Research Association Early Career Achievement Award
- 2014, American Educational Research Association (AERA) Early Career Scholar Award; Technology as an Agent of Change Special Interest Group
- 2014-16, Research Fellowship, Center for Educational Transformation, University of Northern Iowa
- 2014, Early Career Achievement in Research Award. Iowa State University, College of Human Sciences
- 2012, Thomas N. Urban Research Award for outstanding research or scholarly contributions to Iowa Education. Awarded by Iowa Academy of Education.
- 2009, Distinguished Research Award, Iowa Educational Research and Evaluation Association
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Hutchison is passionate about using digital innovations to provide equitable learning opportunities for all students and prepare them for a future that is constantly changed by digital technologies. Accordingly, she leads the Digital, Computational, and Media Literacies Learning Group in scholarship that contributes to an understanding of how digital innovations can be used to provide equitable literacy learning opportunities for diverse learners, prepares students for success in a world in which digital literacy is essential to well-being, and informs understanding of how to prepare teachers to teach computer science through literacy in the elementary grades. Dr. Hutchison and her colleagues have been awarded over $7.3 million in funding for work in this area. Additionally, Dr. Hutchison has authored/co-authored numerous peer-reviewed articles and books on these topics.
Dr. Hutchison was recently awarded the Digital Literacy Game Changer Award by the International Literacy Association, and has previously received research awards from the Literacy Research Association the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and Iowa State University, and was the recipient of the Thomas N. Urban Award for outstanding scholarly contributions to education. Additionally, Dr. Hutchison has served in many leadership roles in organizations such as AERA and the Literacy Research Association, and previously served as Director of the Division of Elementary, Literacy, and Secondary Education at George Mason University.
Currently Funded Projects
Dr. Hutchison currently leads a National Science Foundation-funded project (Award# 2122807) titled “A Partnership to Implement the Inclusive Computer Science Model of Professional Development and a Digital Platform for PK-6 Computer Science teaching for Students with Disabilities.” For this project, Dr. Hutchison’s team is implementing the Inclusive Computer Science (ICS) model of professional development and Compose and Code, also known as CoCo, to provide PK-6 computer science instruction for students with and without high-incidence disabilities. Compose and Code is a digital platform created with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and self-regulated learning strategies to scaffold and support students in composing written products and translating them into creative animations through coding. For more information, visit the project site at https://www.inclusivecomputerscience.org/about-4-1