Heading up Eye2theWorld is Geezer Joe Rueff (Well, maybe the word “geezer” is a bit too strong, but Joe reaches “The Spirit of 76” later this month!) Each week Eye2theWorld will furnish new insights into the world of learning. It will offer articles and interviews by renowned educators and technology specialists to provide direction for you to meet the challenges that lie ahead. And you will have a chance to respond in kind with your comments, asking questions and offering dialogue to link to Joe, his partners, and other subscribers as well.
Joe hopes he can help. “My experiences at all levels of education and the related adventures I’ve had associated with my work can help others gain the perspectives, the knowledge and the skills to successfully face the rapidly changing future.”
Geezer Joe is an educator with more than a half century of experience at all levels of learning, from pre-school through adult and community education. Programs related to innovative ideas for life long learning are in his blood. He’s been a teacher, a coordinator, director, lecturer, and founding presidents of four educational non-profits. He coordinated programs in both career and economic education and was responsible for program evaluation in the Elkhart Community Schools. Projects he has directed have received local, state, and national awards.
In 1990 Joe founded the Learning Society, a local advocacy organization for life long education. Among its accomplishments were several projects, including the initial Even Start program in Elkhart County, IN and the production of a Multicultural Resources Directory for the County, available in both English and Spanish.
In 1991 he founded Views on Learning, Inc., (VOL) with support from a colleague Bob Hostetler, former CEO of CTS Corporation and subsequently president of several wireless cable television companies. VOL’s mission was to secure FCC licenses for educational television programming called Instructional Television Fixed Service (ITFS) in conjunction with wireless cable companies. From 1991 to 2005 VOL secured 22 licenses nationally and became a leading company in the industry. Currently it is moving into the broadband internet arena.
Joe was founding President of the Indiana Distance Learning Association in 1999 and remains a member of its Board of Directors.
Recently Joe left VOL and has founded Eye2theWorld. It is built upon the basic ideas central to both The Learning Society and Views on Learning. Through electronic publishing the new organization is bringing information about innovative uses of educational technology to those committed to change that’s achievable through life long learning. It will also provide a forum for educators and research organizations to share ideas and seek answers to problems, whether those concern educators, students, parents, business persons or community leaders.
Joe’s academic background includes a Bachelor of Arts degree (American History major) from DePauw University, a Master of Science in Education (School Administration) from Indiana University, and many additional courses, especially in economics and program evaluation from Purdue, Ball State, and Indiana University at South Bend.