Blanche O’Bannon is an associate professor in the Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education. Her primary research interests include the instruction of university faculty and K-12 teachers in the integration of technology and curriculum, the development of multimedia/hypermedia learning environments, course development focusing on these areas, and the integration of Web 2.0 tools into learning environments.
O’Bannon’s book, Preparing to Use Technology: A Practical Guide to Curriculum Integration (2nd edition, 2010) published by Allyn and Bacon, is used by over 60 higher education institutions; it includes a companion website with student materials as well as an instructor’s manual on CD. In addition, she has published numerous articles, book chapters, and papers on the integration of technology in the classroom.
Her recent article Using Podcasts to Replace Lecture: Effects on Student Achievement was published in 2011 in Computers and Education, an international journal ranked # 5 on the Social Science Citation Index. This article is cited as one of the top fifteen most downloaded articles from SciVerse ScienceDirect in the last 90 days.
O’Bannon has received over $3.3 million in national grants to fund her research in addition to software awards totaling over $225,000. In the academic year 2010-2011 she was selected as Innovative Technology Center Fellow, and in 2008 was selected Innovative Technology Faculty for her use of technology in coursework.