William B. "Bill" Giddings

Director, Education and Library Programs, MOREnet

Bill Giddings served as the K-12 Program Manager for MOREnet from 1993-2002. In June 2002, he was named Director for MOREnet's Education and Library Programs, which provides the critical linkage between MOREnet and the K-20 and public library communities. MOREnet is part of the University of Missouri System and provides Internet connectivity, training and technical support to the state's K-12 schools, colleges and universities, libraries, state government, teaching hospitals and clinics and other affiliates. Giddings' group is responsible for pilot projects, content development, E-rate customer support, NETg customer coordination and conferences.

Giddings established the Internet connectivity program for Missouri's K-12 schools, K-12 TNP (Technology Networking Program), a collaboration between MOREnet and the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Currently the K-12 TNP provides Internet connections to 512 of Missouri's 524 school districts. He implemented the eMINTS (enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies) Program to assist teacher pedagogy change in Missouri's elementary schools. The eMINTS Program aims to transform classrooms into places where both teachers and students become life long learners, fluent with the tools of multimedia technologies. Giddings has increased MOREnet's K-12 programs' budget from $0.5 to $12.5 million dollars annually.

Most recently Giddings has assumed overall responsibility for MOREnet's Internet2 K-20 efforts. The I2 K-20 initiative is a national effort to extend advanced Internet capabilities throughout the educational community, including K-12 schools, community colleges, museums and libraries. It will leverage advanced networking capabilities by facilitating innovation opportunities through content, services and application efforts.

Giddings' roots lie in the public education, elementary school setting. He taught Special Education and Reading in the Columbia Public Schools from 1968-1980. Before joining MOREnet he served as the Assistant Director of the Columbia School District's Instructional Media Center and Assistant Director of the Missouri Facilitator Center.

Giddings holds a B.S. and an M.A. in Elementary Education from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), an organization that promotes ways the Internet and telecommunications can improve learning. He guided the MINTs (Multimedia Interactive Networked Technologies) pilot project to a Smithsonian ComputerWorld Laureate in Education & Academia award in 1999. Under his leadership the eMINTS Program was named a finalist for the 2001 Stockholm Challenge Awards, awards based on creativity, innovation and desire to stimulate and share knowledge using information and communication technologies.