Amber Rowland
- Co-Director, ALTEC
- Associate Research Professor, KU Center for Research on Learning
Contact Info
1122 W Campus Rd
Lawrence, KS 66045-3101
Personal Links
Biography —
Amber Rowland, PhD, is an Associate Research Professor with the Center for Research on Learning and Co-Director of the Advanced Learning Technologies (ALTEC) Division. She specializes in collaborative, practical and engaging adult professional learning with an emphasis on current instructional practice and the powerful integration of technology. She is particularly interested in supporting professional learning at a distance and is constantly pursuing methods for tapping into the collective capacity of educators and students. She serves as a Co-Principal Investigator on the Office of Special Education and Policy (OSEP)-funded, Stepping Up grant, called VOISS, which is building a virtual reality environment to teach students social competency skills and the teacher progress monitoring and professional learning needed to implement and generalize learned skills to the physical classroom. In addition, she is a Co-Investigator on the IES-funded grant called Possible Selves + Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction project, as well as Co-Director of the Literacy Network of Kansas, Virtual Coaching program.
Her experiences range from Kindergarten to the college classroom where she has taught at multiple levels, both face-to-face and online. She has served as a technology integration specialist, project manager for the Technology Rich Classroom, Title IID initiative in Kansas, an instructor in the School of Education at the University of Kansas, and the director of multiple federal, state, and local initiatives.
Dr. Rowland travels to local, state and national venues and conferences working with teachers on digital-age instruction and the general integration of technology to support all learners, especially those who struggle. In 2008, Amber was recognized as one of the 20 emerging leaders in education technology by the National School Boards Association “20 to Watch” initiative and in 2016, she was recognized as a Kansas University, Woman of Distinction.
Education —
Selected Publications —
Major Publications
Rowland, A., Smith, S.J., & Lowrey, A.K. (2021). Connecting Evidence-Based Writing Strategies With Readily Available Technology Solutions. TEACHING Exceptional Children. 53(3). 253-255. doi:10.1177/0040059920954778
Rowland, A. , Smith, S.J., & Lowrey, A. (2020). Aligning technology tools with the 6-Traits of Writing: Solutions to support struggling writers. Journal of Special Education and Technology. 10.1177/0162643420945600
Rowland, A., Smith, S. J., Lowrey, A.K. & Abdulrahim, N. A. (2020) Underutilized Technology Solutions for Student Writing. Intervention in School and Clinic. 56(2), 99-106. 10.1177/1053451220914893.
Carreon, A., Smith, S.J., Mosher, M., Rao, K. & Rowland, A. (2020). A Review of Virtual Reality Intervention Research for Students with Disabilities in K-12 Settings. Journal of Special Education and Technology. doi:10.1177/0162643420962011
Smith, S.J., Lowrey, A.K., Rowland, A. & Frey, B. (2020). Effective Technology Supported Writing Strategies for Learners with Disabilities. Inclusion. 8(1), 58-73. 10.1352/2326-6988-8.1.58.
*Carreon, A., Smith, S.J. & Rowland, A. (2019) Augmented Reality: Creating and Implementing Digital Classroom Supports. Journal of Special Education Technology. DOI: 10.1177/0162643419882423 *won JSET, Technology in Action Article of Year, 2020
Rowland, A., Craig-Hare, J., Ault, M., Ellis, J., & Bulgren, J. (2017). Social media: How the next generation can practice argumentation. Educational Media International, 3987(August), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523987.2017.1362818
Craig-Hare, J., Ault, M., & Rowland, A. (2017). The Effect of Socioscientific Topics on Discourse within an Online Game Designed to Engage Middle School Students in Scientific Argumentation. Journal of Education in Science, Environment and Health (JESEH), 3(2), 110–125. https://doi.org/10.21891/jeseh.325783
Craig-Hare, J., Rowland, A., Ault, M., & Ellis, J. D. (2017). Practicing Scientific Argumentation Through Social Media. In I. Levin & D. Tsybulsky (Eds.), Digital Tools and Solutions for Inquiry-Based STEM Learning (pp. 82–111). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Greer, D. L., Rowland, A., & Smith, S. J. (2014). Critical considerations for teaching students with disabilities in online environments. TEACHING Exceptional Children. May/June 2014 46: 79-91.
Rowland, A., Smith, S. & Basham, J. (2013). Integrating Technology through Universally Designed Professional Learning. In P. Resta (Ed.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2013. Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
Rowland, A. (2012). Exploring How Conversations Meet Teacher Learning Needs. In P. Resta (Ed.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2012 (pp. 3043-3047). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
Ault, M., Adams, D., Rowland, A., Tiemann, G. (2010). Targeted Educational Games: Fun and So Much More! Refereed paper presented at annual meeting of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Denver, CO.
Isreal, M., Knowlton, E., Griswold, D., & Rowland, A. (2009). Application of video-conferencing technology in teacher education: Increasing understanding, engagement, and competence. Journal of Special Education Technology.
Rowland, A., & Stanley, M. (2008). Transforming the Classroom: TRC in Kansas. T.H.E. Journal, 35(7), 12.
Minor Publications
Rowland, A. (2020). How virtual coaches support coachee selection of educational technology tools. VECTOR Virtual Coaching: VECTOR Blog.
Myers, S., Elford, M., Rowland, A., & Qian, X. (2020). Coaching Teachers Virtually? Here’s a Model for How to do it. Literacy Network of Kansas. Literacy Network of Kansas website
Rowland, A. (2018). Treatment Integrity. In B. Frey (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation.
Myers, S. & Rowland, A. (2018). The missing link: A common definition of instructional coaching. The Literacy Network of Kansas, Kansas State Department of Education: Literacy Network of Kansas Blog.
Smith, S. J. & Rowland, A. (2016). Improving Technology Application Through Writing Instruction: Multi-tasking at its best. Closing the Gap. Oct/Nov 2016 35(4): 9-14.
Works Submitted or Ready for Submission
Rowland, A., Myers, S., Elford, M. & Smith, S.. (under review). Coaching Virtually to Support Professional Learning. Journal of Special Education and Technology.
Elford, M.D., Qian, X., Monroe-Gulick, A., Myers, S., Rowland, A., Yang, S., (2021). Coaching Virtually: A Systematic Review. Manuscript in preparation.
Myers, S., Rowland, A., Elford, M.D. (2021, under contract). Implementing a virtual coaching model for teacher professional development. IGI Global.