Steffen W. Schmidt is a professor of political science at Iowa State University. He grew up in Colombia, South America, and has studied in Colombia, Switzerland, and France. He has a B.A. from Rollins College and obtained his Ph.D. from Columbia University, New York, in public law and government. Schmidt has published fourteen books and over one hundred and thirty articles in scholarly journals and is the recipient of numerous prestigious teaching prizes, including the Amoco Award for Lifetime Career Achievement in Teaching and the Teacher of the Year award. He is a pioneer in the use of web-based and real-time video courses and is a member of the American Political Science Association's… section on Computers and Multimedia. He is known as "Dr. Politics" for his extensive commentary on US politics in US and international media. He is a weekly blogger for Gannett, comments on CNN en Espanol and Univision as well as WNYC, New York. He's on Facebook (SteffenWSchmidt) and Twitter (DrPolitics).Kimberly Jansma directs the French Language Program at The University of California at Los Angeles, where she supervises teaching instructors and teaches language, culture, and linguistics courses. She has published pedagogical texts and multimedia materials and presents her research at major conferences. Dr. Jansma's areas of interest include hybrid language instruction, second language acquisition, and sociolinguistics. She received her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin.
Margaret Ann Kassen is associate professor and language program coordinator in the Department of Modern Languages at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where she teaches undergraduate French and applied linguistics courses, as well as works with graduate and undergraduate teacher preparation. Her research interests include foreign language writing, performance assessment, technology-enhanced language learning, and TA development. In addition to presenting at conferences, Dr. Kassen has published articles on technology and writing and edited a volume on developing self-direction in foreign language learners. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.