Profile

Interest in the education of children started early for Datta Kaur, having been born the oldest of ten children.  She started out in the field of Speech Pathology, teaching migrant workers' children as well as autistic and emotionally disturbed children for seven years in the public school system.  Realizing that there was more to education than what the public school system offered, she began to travel and helped with curriculum development in various schools across the U.S., such as Montessori Schools and a Navajo Reservation school.  With the help of Kundalini yoga, which she has taught and practiced daily for the past twenty-eight years, Datta Kaur home schooled her three children and created a summer camp, where children of all ages could eat vegetarian, practice yoga, and experience outdoor activities.

Later Datta Kaur worked in a different capacity by organizing weekly free food distribution programs with meals prepared and served by children in an urban center until she was approached to become a corporate trainer.  It was in the world of business where she began to realize the power of technology, and she immersed herself in this field in which she conducted up to five interactive teleconferences a week with up to 150 people on each call, developed training materials, and published a book.  To stay on the 'cutting edge' of what was available for change and efficiency, Datta Kaur completed an M.Ed. in Online Teaching and Learning at California State University Hayward.  With more knowledge and understanding about global education and what technology can offer, she obtained a grant and became co-founder of an online media source in January 2000, which unites volunteer readers and writers and uses the technology for education while broadening the choices in communication related to local and national news.

As one of the older of the 'net-geners', Datta Kaur can be found designing curricula and teaching online graduate courses in education while she expands her research here at UMBC in the LLC Doctoral Program with a focus on the power and impact of online learning communities, small and large, national and international.

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News

The LLC program was well-represented at the 40th Annual TESOL Convention in Tampa March 15th to 18th. Faida Abu-Ghazelah (cohort 5) presented on “An Anthropological Perspective on Palestinian Identity in Diaspora;” George M. Chinnery (cohort 8) on “Internet Technologies for the Listening and Speaking Class” and “Integrated Skills Development Using Instant Messenger;” Asli Hassan (cohort 6) on “Helping the Refugee Family in Small-City America;” and Steve Shin (graduate of cohort 3) on “Korean Adolescents' Ethnic Identity and Language Practices.”

Others participated in collaborative presentations. Silvio Avendaño (graduate of cohort 2) co-presented on “Collaboration in a Web-based course for EFL Program Administrators;” Joan Kang Shin (cohort 6) on “Building Learning Communities for TEYL Professionals,” Silvio, Joan, Bev Bickel (graduate of cohort 3), and Jodi Crandall on “Teacher Educators as New Comers in the Online Educational Environment” and “Creating Spaces for Collaboration through the Internet;” and Jodi on “Promising Practices in Community College Adult ESL” and “Raising the Status of the ESL Profession.”

Datta Kaur Khalsa and Diane Maloney-Krichmar (2 LLC graduates) co-wrote a chapter in press, with a third author, Joy K. Peyton. The title is "Theory and research:  Interaction via computers" and will appear in CALL environments: Research, practice, and critical issues edited by J. Egbert and E. Hanson-Smith and published by Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Here is the full citation:

Khalsa, D.K., Maloney-Krichmar, D., & Peyton, J.K. (in press). Theory and research: Interaction via computers. In J. Egbert & E. Hanson-Smith (Eds.), CALL environments: Research, practice, and critical issues. Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.

Datta Kaur Khalsa presented at two conferences in the fall of 2005. She presnted at the International Association for Science, Technology and Society conference in Baltimore, February 2006. The title of her presentation is "Social Computing: What Does This Mean for Technology, Education and Society?" The second presentation was at the 27th Annual Ethnography in Education Research Forum held on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia. The title of that presentation is "Global interaction and education through project-based learning: What teachers need and what administration can offer."

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