Amy Hutchison, assistant professor in the School of Education, won the Early Career Scholar for 2014 Award, which is awarded to one scholar in a discipline in their first seven years of their career from all across the country.

This is the first year the award has been given, so she is the first winner of the award.

The American Educational Research Association, which is the leading association for educational researchers in the country, will award her on April 3. It is an award for achievement early in a person’s career.

The award can be given to any educator from any discipline. The award is broken down into divisions and special interest groups.

Hutchison belongs to the division of teaching and teacher education. Within this division, there are areas of emphasis. Hutchison’s emphasis is technology and change for teaching and learning. 

“It is very gratifying because, as a scholar at Iowa State, my job is to build my reputation nationally so that when people in the country think about who does work when they think of education and technology, they will think of me,” said Hutchison.

Donald Bear, professor in the School of Education, described Hutchison as a collaborator with a thirst for knowledge and research.

“She is like a legend,” said Bear. “Everybody admires her great energy for life. She is dedicated to understanding and producing solid, meaningful research.”

She was nominated for the award by an anonymous person who knew her work. They wrote a letter about Hutchison describing why she deserved the award and submitted some work she had done in the field. Hutchison had to submit a document describing the things she had done with technology and teaching, too.

Hutchison wants her reputation to be able to help teachers work with technology, as well as be known all around the country. This award has given her a large recognition so more people know about her work.

She is among the few people in the country who do research in the specific area of literacy, technology and education.

“For my job, I am supposed to make an impact with my teaching, and I am also supposed to make an impact through my research,” said Hutchison. “Iowa State wants me to build my reputation nationally, so that when someone in the country needs help in my certain area, they would think of me.”

In the future, Hutchison plans to continue her research. She is currently writing a book in hopes of helping improve technology and literacy in schools. She wants teachers to understand what it means to integrate technology under common core state standards, which are standards that have been adopted by almost all of the country for teaching.

“The issue is that a lot of schools have good technology,” said Hutchison. “They just don’t know how to use it very well.”

In a survey Hutchison performed, many teachers today have said they are overwhelmingly uncertain on how to follow the standards for teachers and technology. She wants to support these teachers.

“My goal is to be able to support teachers in using technology and to develop literacy in their students,” said Hutchison.

According to Hutchison, a large part of what helped her to win this award was her research concerning iPads in schools. She researched the integration of their use of visual elements like photo, video and color, allowing teachers to teach in new ways.

“Part of my research has been to have teachers think of reading as not just reading print, but also looking at an image and understanding what it means,” said Hutchison.