Spires, Dr Hiller A. – Friday Institute for Educational Innovation

Interim Director, Friday Institute

haspires@ncsu.edu

Office: 919-513-8501

Teams

Projects

Beijing Royal School (Principal Investigator)

Since 2010, the College of Education has been in partnership with the Beijing Royal School through a variety of cross-cultural initiatives.
Disciplinary Literacy for Deeper Learning MOOC-Ed (Principal Investigator)

This course explores what it means to read, write, speak and listen for learning and creating knowledge across disciplines, including science, mathematics, history/social studies and English/language arts.
New Literacies Teacher Leader Institute (Principal Investigator)

The New Literacies Teacher Leader Institute (NLI) brings educators together to develop hands-on, minds-on learning experience in the digital age.
Suzhou North America High School: Connecting to the Future (Principal Investigator)

This new school was established to educate students who plan to enroll in top U.S. universities with a curriculum that incorporates creative thinking and problem-solving skills that the American education system emphasizes but is not a widespread practice in China.
North Carolina Summit on US/China Education (Co-Principal Investigator)

This summit is organized every two years for North Carolina education, government and business leaders to continue to cultivate partnerships that advance cross-cultural understandings and collaborations.
Project-Based Inquiry Global (PBI Global) (Co-Principal Investigator)

A collaborative, inquiry-based instructional strategy that connects students internationally through interdisciplinary inquiry projects.

About Hiller

Dr. Spires currently serves as the Interim Executive Director and was also the founding director for the Friday Institute; she has been a Senior Research Fellow since 2006. She joined NC State University’s College of Education in 1987 after receiving her Ph.D. in Literacy Education from the University of South Carolina. For her cumulative work in the area of literacy and technology, Dr. Spires received the International Reading Association Award for Outstanding Writing in the Field of College Reading. She has also received several awards at NC State, including Outstanding Alumni Award in Outreach and Service for providing professional development seminars for teachers. In 2011, she received the Jackson A. Rigney International Service Award, and in 2012 she received NC State’s Alumni Distinguished Professor Award. Dr. Spires studies the integration of emerging technologies in order to illustrate research-based best practices for digital literacy learning with diverse populations. A current research focus is PBI Global, where students and teachers collaborate on inquiry projects across time, space and culture. She directs the New Literacies Collaborative and New Literacies & Global Learning master’s program, including the K-12 Literacy Cohort. Dr. Spires serves as honorary principal at Suzhou North America High School, which she helped create in 2016. Learn more about Dr. Spires.