Margaret Chambers is president of MindLink International, Silver Spring, a consulting practice specializing in strategic development of elearning and virtual universities. She is the former director of the Institute of Distance Education (IDE) at University System of Maryland located at University of Maryland University College (UMUC). Since 1995 she led initiatives in system-wide policy formation, faculty leadership development, Web course development, and international programs related to distance and elearning.
Currently Margaret is engaged in research and consulting on “scaling up” the virtual university. She assists organizations in strategic planning for growth of elearning either in an academic or workplace environment. One important aspect of such planning is the dynamic interaction between strategies for curriculum and faculty development; these affect scalability, program quality, organizational viability, and profitability.
Margaret is also exploring new approaches to organizing learning and managing knowledge resources. Her research includes use of semantic networks, computer-supported collaborative argumentation, knowledge mapping and other means of visualizing and manipulating connections.
A member of computer conferencing communities since the early 80s and past president of the early Electronic Networking Association, Margaret remains committed to her belief that knowledge resides in the human network of minds, not in digitized documents. She also facilitates online discourse, dialogue, and online collaboration.
Margaret’s broad perspectives were gained though a career that spanned universities, government, private industry, and non-profit organizations. She has taught at four universities including one in the Middle East, served as department chair, managed a large Federal grant program for the old US Office of Education, staffed a Congressional committee, worked as director of education for a Silicon Valley startup company in artificial intelligence, and since 1986 managed her own consulting practice in emerging technologies for cooperative work and interactive online learning. She speaks to groups about online communities and about the spectrum of learning in a networked world.
“Never in human history have we had the opportunity to link more people of all ages with each other. Finding better ways to engage the minds and hearts of people in learning how to meet the challenges of our increasingly complex world is what drives me.”
Margaret A. Chambers
Mind*Link International
1400 East-West Hwy, Suite 1723
Silver Spring, MD 20910-3265
301.495.9669 voice
301.495.9691 fax
240.606.4639 cell