This year's Innovations in Teaching with Technology Awards (ITTA) recipients are enhancing nursing education using AI-supported Life Story Books, strengthening teacher preparation with an AI lesson planning agent, and utilizing virtual reality for teaching radiation safety.

Enhancing Gerontological Nursing Education using AI-Supported Life Story Books

Theresa Bechtel, associate professor of instruction of Nursing, and Katherine Britt, assistant professor of Nursing, were awarded $5,000 for a project that integrates AI-supported Life Story Books into prelicensure nursing student education. Students will partner with an individual in the community to conduct reminiscence interviews and co-create narrative-based books using AI image generation, digital archives, and cloud-based design tools. 

The goals of the project are to strengthens therapeutic communication, person-centered care, ethical technology use, and narrative documentation. It builds on emerging evidence demonstrating the value of GenAI-assisted reminiscence work and adapts it to a nursing education context. The students will participate in an AI ethics seminar, structured interviewing, image creation, and book development. Evaluation focuses on student learning outcomes.

Strengthening Teacher Preparation with a Knowledge-Based AI Lesson Planning Agent

Leah Zimmermann, clinical assistant professor of Special Education and assistant director of the Iowa Reading Research Center, and Kimberly McFadden, Iowa Reading Research Center postdoctoral research scholar, were awarded $57,516 to develop a customized AI agent to help pre-service teachers develop lesson plans for secondary students with specific word recognition difficulties. The tool will enable users to develop intervention lessons that follow a systematic scope and sequence, are supported by research-based approaches to word reading intervention, and can be customized to align with students’ real-time content area coursework (e.g., science, social studies).

Utilizing Virtual Reality as a Teaching Tool for Radiation Safety

Tori Forbes, professor of Chemistry; Scott Daly, associate professor of Chemistry; and Ibrahim Demir, adjunct associate professor of Engineering; were awarded $50,185 for a project that aims to decrease critical safety and experiential learning gaps in radiochemistry curriculum by developing a virtual reality (VR) training module that teaches students how to safely handle radioactive solutions—skills that cannot be fully practiced in traditional undergraduate or graduate-level laboratories. 

Currently, graduate students in the certificate program lack early exposure to realistic radioactive-solution hazards before hands-on summer labs, and undergraduates have no opportunity to engage in practical radiochemical work due to safety constraints. The VR simulation will replicate laboratory procedures, allow students to practice selecting PPE, transferring radioactive solutions, detecting contamination, and iterating based on feedback. This will provide a safe, immersive, and pedagogically sound intervention to build competency and confidence prior to engaging in real laboratory environments.

Funded through student technology fees, the ITTA support significant, innovative projects that show the potential to improve teaching and learning at the University of Iowa. ITTA has provided over $2 million to innovative teaching and technology projects.