Cherie Dargan

Office Hours for Spring 2013

• Monday/Wednesday/Friday, 9:00 to 10:00 A.M. in LB209
• Tuesday/Thursday, 9:00 to 10:00 A.M. in LB209

Please contact me by email if these times do not work with your schedule.

Courses I teach:

• ENG 106 Composition II (both Online, Face to Face, and Hybrid Evening course). 
• LIT101 Introduction to Literature
• EDU255 Technology in the Classroom

All courses use Angel as a required resource.

About Me

I have been teaching at Hawkeye since 1996: my undergraduate degrees are in English and Psychology from Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. I then got a Master's degree in Composition and Rhetoric at Iowa State, and more recently earned a second Master's from the University of Northern Iowa in Educational Technology.

I write a monthly column for the Waterloo Courier's Business monthly publication, focusing on the use of technology. To see my most recent column, you will need to pick up a print edition at your local Hy-Vee. The September 2012 column is available on the Courier's Business website, as an interactive edition.

I was interviewed on Iowa Public Radio's Talk of Iowa for a project done with the Rural Lit Rally website in September 2012, featuring Ruth Suckow's short stories and books. I am the webmaster for the Ruth Suckow website, and my Introduction to Literature class was part of the project, interacting with others on a special Facebook page, where they discussed one of the stories we read in class, "A Rural Community," which is available for download at the Suckow site.

Projects and Interests

iPads in the classroom: I am helping to pilot an iPad cart for various Education classes. I am interested in how mobile technology is transforming the way we communicate, teach and learn, work, and play.

Laptop cart for the Library building: I helped get a cart for our Communication classes that do not meet in a computer classroom, such as Introduction to Literature and Oral Communication. This has enhanced student learning and access to Angel, the Hawkeye Library, and other online resources, and several teachers are now using the cart.

Brainstorming strategies with the use of Inspiration and other mapping software. I have been using Inspiration for over a decade with my Composition students, and more recently, with the Education students taking the Technology in the Classroom course. I am interested in how it helps students to generate and organize information, and enhances the writing process.

Google Docs, Social Media and Web 2.0 tools. I use Twitter, Tumblr, Prezi, and a number of other Web 2.0 tools. I've done  several presentations at local groups and for conferences about the effective use of these tools.

Online and Hybrid learning: I was a pioneer on the ICN system of the 1990s, and one of the first in my department to teach online. I have almost a decade of experience teaching online and closer to 15 years experience using technology in the classroom.

I attend a Library Technology Conference each Spring Break with my husband: it's held at a college in St. Paul and provides participants with the latest trends in technology, along with hands-on sessions and top keynote speakers.

I am the webmaster for the Ruth Suckow website, and doing research on Suckow, a noted Iowa author, and her husband, Ferner Nuhn, who lived in Cedar Falls off and on through the 1940s, in preparation for writing a Wikipedia entry on Ferner Nuhn.