Tuscaloosa, Ala. - Nationally known technology expert Dr. Carolyn G. Jarmon, associate director of the Center for Academic Transformation at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, will present a public lecture on Tuesday, Feb.19, at 3:30 p.m. in 227 Gallalee Hall on The University of Alabama campus.

Jarmon will discuss the impact that technology is having on higher education and how college courses are being redesigned to utilize the latest technological advances, including the Internet. She will also discuss the Pew Learning and Technology Program. This component of the Center for Academic Transformation is an $8.8 million, four-year effort to apply new technology to student learning cost effectively. The program provides grants for course redesign and symposia on learning and technology. Another component of the Center for Academic Transformation, The Leadership Forum, is designed to advance the growth of knowledgeable people to lead their institutions, companies and organizations in the Information Age.

Jarmon has lectured widely on the logistics and cost of distance education in the United States and internationally. She is a contributor to the book Teaching at a Distance: A Handbook for Instructors. Jarmon received master’s and doctoral degrees at Cornell University, a master of business administration degree at East Tennessee State University, and a bachelor’s degree at the University of Delaware.

Jarmon served as the acting assistant vice president for academic affairs at SUNY Empire State College where she was the coordinator of SUNY by Satellite, a pioneering, satellite-delivered, undergraduate business degree. While serving as associate professor at SUNY’s Center for Distance Learning, she developed the Center’s curriculum. Jarmon has served on the faculty of four colleges and as a fellow at Educom in Washington, D.C. where she consulted on the expansion of virtual programs and cost/benefit issues related to distance education.

Jarmon’s lecture is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences Committee on Technology and is free and open to the public.

The College of Arts and Sciences is UA’s largest division with over 6,000 students and 360 faculty members. It is the state’s largest public liberal arts college.