Dr. Brenda I. López Ortiz has been a part of the education world
for about 20 years. Before joining St. John’s University, Dr. López
worked for 10 years as a teacher of English for the Puerto Rico
Department of Education. Upon completion of her Master of Arts in
Instructional Technology degree, she applied her newly acquired
knowledge and skills in the design and development of a
technology-supported program to help low income Title I students
develop basic and advanced knowledge and skills in English language
arts. As a result of these endeavors, she earned the award for
excellence in teaching at the school district level.
Dr. López has designed and developed numerous professional
development experiences for teachers in a variety of instructional
technology topics including educational applications of office
software and Internet technologies. Both independently and in
collaboration with colleagues, she has designed, developed and
taught undergraduate and graduate courses in a variety of
educational technology topics including introduction to
instructional technology, research issues in online learning,
hypermedia and education, computer-mediated communication, and
designing online collaborative projects. She has facilitated these
experiences in face-to-face, hybrid and online learning settings.
Dr. López has also worked as a website developer/editor both as a
freelancer and in affiliation with an academic institution creating
web sites to disseminate information about departments, programs,
research and service centers and administrative offices. More
recently, in collaboration with Dr. Aliya Holmes from the
Department of Curriculum & Instruction, Dr. López received a
grant to design and implement a project that engages School of
Education students in the development of electronic
portfolios.
Dr. López believes the most meaningful learning experiences are
those that are project/problem-based incorporating the multiple
perspectives of collaborating peers. She also believes in the power
of formative evaluation to guide students during their inquiry
process. She values hybrid and face-to-face contexts and has a
special interest in online environments. For those reasons, her
research focuses on the nature of online collaboration, online
collaborative problem-based learning and supporting
technologies.