Hiller Spires

Dr. Spires, who has been on the NC State faculty since 1986, is a Professor of Literacy and Technology in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She received her Ph.D. in literacy education with a cognate in English from the University of South Carolina. She served as the founding director of The William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation from 2002-2006 and currently serves as FI Senior Research Fellow. She was awarded NC State University's Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professorship in 2012.
Dr. Spires's research focuses on the effects of digital literacies on learning, including emerging literacies associated with gaming environments and Web 2.0 applications. She is a co-PI on the NSF-funded projects, Crystal Island and Narrative Theatre. She is also conducting research with teachers in China on the use of digital literacies. Her publications have appeared in Journal of Educational Psychology, Cognition & Instruction, Journal of Educational Computing Research, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Literacy Research & Instruction, Computers and Education, and Journal of Research in Technology Education. She teaches ECI 541 Reading in the Content Areas, ECI 546 New Literacies & Media, and ECI 603 Advanced Seminar in Literacy Research. She coordinates the K-12 literacy certification for the New Literacies & Global Learning master's program and the C & I Ph.D. Literacy & English/Language Arts program.
More info: https://sites.google.com/site/hillerspires/