Governing Board Honors Colorado State University Psychology Professor With Teaching-Excellence Award
Wednesday, May 7, 1997
FORT COLLINS--Professor Frank Vattano from the department of
psychology was awarded a 1997 Excellence in Undergraduate
Teaching Award at Colorado State University and is among three
recipients honored for outstanding teaching at Colorado State,
the University of Southern Colorado and Fort Lewis College.
Vattano received the award today at a meeting of the State
Board of Agriculture, which sponsors the annual awards and
governs the three-school Colorado State University System. Board
members also honored Maya Avi、a from the University of Southern
Colorado and Jim Mills from Fort Lewis College.
Vattano is a pioneer in applying multimedia technology to
improve classroom instruction and is one of Colorado State's most
ardent proponents of multimedia, which includes videotapes, film
clips, videodiscs, compact discs and related visual
presentations.
Colleagues describe Vattano as "a consummate scholar-teacher
who always carries a heavy instructional load," which means he
teaches introductory psychology to more than 400 undergraduates
each academic year. Other colleagues said: "Above all else, he is
a genuine and caring human being."
Students enrolled in Vattano's courses comment on his
skilled use of technology in the classroom and his engaging and
dynamic teaching style. They also commend him for lectures that
are organized and enriched because he incorporates the most
current teaching technologies.
Vattano concedes his classes are demanding, but designed to
bring out the best in students' performance. Vattano said his
underlying philosophy of teaching is simple: "Each student is
entitled to respect, and deserves our best efforts in the
teaching and learning process."
Vattano also is succinct in describing multimedia as a
teaching tool. "Multimedia has the potential to be the most
creative, highest-impact learning experience ever conceived."
But Vattano seasons his enthusiasm for multimedia with
traditional ideas. "Multimedia helps deliver the most up-to-
date, important and attractive material to students in a visual
format, but it's not a substitute for reading," he said. "I
expect students to read textbook assignments before they come to
class."
Vattano said he began experimenting with television as a
teaching tool as early as the mid-1960s. However, he said it
wasn't until 1986 that he began to fully appreciate the teaching
impact of multimedia. The catalyst was the instructional
potential he saw in "The Brain," an eight-part program produced
by WNET in New York in cooperation with the Annenberg/Corporation
for Public Broadcasting Project.
Vattano, with funding from the Annenberg/CPB Project,
obtained permission to edit the eight hours of material into 30
video "modules" that averaged 6 minutes in length. Vattano
referenced the modules to college-level textbooks used in general
psychology courses nationwide. With additional funding, he
repeated the process in 1990 to create 38 video modules edited
from another PBS series, "The Mind."
Vattano has since received a number of grants to update and
expand the BRAIN/MIND modules. Vattano's modules now are used in
more than 6,000 schools across the country. He uses about 50 to
55 modules each semester in his psychology courses.
Vattano, a 1958 alumnus of Colorado State, has devoted
almost 29 years to teaching and administration at the university.
He first joined Colorado State in 1964 as an assistant professor.
After one year, he moved to the University of Denver where he
served three years as associate dean of arts and sciences and one
year as vice chancellor for student affairs.
In 1969, he returned to Colorado State as associate director
of the Human Factors Research Laboratory and associate professor
of psychology. A year later, he was promoted to assistant
academic vice president for instructional development. From 1976-
1986, Vattano served as dean of what now is the College of
Liberal Arts. He then rejoined the psychology department to
pursue his interest in teaching and multimedia.
Vattano has been involved in a number of "firsts" in his
career at Colorado State. In 1964, he taught the university's
first televised course, which was shown for five years. He also
planned and organized the first Preview CSU as an experimental
orientation program and initiated the Let's Talk Teaching
seminars, the teaching mini-grant program and a graduate seminar
on college teaching, which was among the first such seminars of
its type taught in the nation.
Along with colleagues, he also helped create the Honors
Professor Program and the Baccalaureate Honors Degree Program. In
addition, Vattano has received a Pennock Distinguished Service
Award and a Willard O. Eddy Teacher Award from Colorado State,
and a U S West Direct Excellence in Education Award.
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