Dr. Martha Jeanne Yanes is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She began her teaching career as a Spanish instructor in secondary school in her hometown, Kansas City, Missouri. Her four decade long teaching career also includes experience in early childhood bilingual education and Spanish language education for adults.

Dr. Yanes holds a BA in Spanish and Education from Avila College and an MA in Romance Language Literatures (Spanish) from the University of Missouri – Kansas City. Her enduring interest in developing instructional practices to meet diverse learner needs drew her attention to instructional technology and led to the completion of a Doctorate in Instructional Technology and Distance Education (ITDE) at Nova Southeastern University.

Her work at UTPA is directed toward integrating technology into the teacher preparation curriculum to correspond to State Technology Standards for All Teachers and the ISTE NETS Standards. In addition to teaching instructional technology courses in the graduate and under graduate teacher preparation programs, Dr. Yanes conducts instructional technology workshops for area teachers, presents at national/international and local technology conferences, designs and teaches online and hybrid courses, and serves on the editorial review board of the Journal for Interactive Online Learning (JIOL), a publication of the National Center for Online Learning Research.

Dr. Yanes has collaborated on numerous technology grants. She served for four years as the Co-director of the UTPA Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to use Technology (PT3) Grant. She currently serves as Director of the Educational Technology Resource Center (ETRC) in the UTPA College of Education. The ETRC maintains the Electronic Portfolio (EP), the Electronic Learning Community (ELC), wireless computer labs and other technological innovations achieved during the PT3 Grant.

Dr. Yanes focuses her research toward the integration of technology to support effective teaching and learning and the use of the UTPA Electronic Learning Community to support the professional development of teachers.

Teaching Philosophy
My teaching philosophy is based in my belief that effective educational practice is a collaborative change effort between teacher and learner. The process begins with a shared recognition of the learner’s need to comprehend their world and the teacher’s desire to design instructional experiences to assist learners in meeting their goal. The result is that teacher and learner become co-learners and cooperating change agents.

What I like about teaching at UTPA
The thing I enjoy most about teaching at The University of Texas Pan American is that students, faculty and administration express and enact a commitment to make a positive difference in the local and global communities. This shared commitment creates an atmosphere of purpose that fosters collaborative and individual opportunities for professional growth.