Giovanni Zimotti

Giovanni Zimotti is the Director of Spanish Language Instruction at the University of Iowa. He is from a little Italian village called Cagnano Varano. He holds a Ph.D. in Spanish Linguistics from The University of Alabama. He is the founder of Greyled, the OER platform that thinks like you do. He is a recipient of multiple awards, including the 2021-2022 Collegiate Teaching Award (CLAS, Iowa) and of the 2022 Educator Award for Open Education Excellence (OE Awards).

His research interests include second language acquisition, technology for language acquisition, and open education. Dr. Zimotti currently leads a large-scale, two-year longitudinal study involving over 1,000 participants, investigating the potential existence of a natural order of second language acquisition in adults and the role of instructional methods. He is curating various VR projects to expose students to transcultural contact. Dr. Zimotti is also a big proponent of OER (Open Educational Resources) materials to make college education more accessible and affordable. He has authored two OER textbooks for Spanish for the professions; Salón de Clase, and Maletín Médico, and one for Elementary Spanish (Semillas). Dr. Zimotti is also the president of HEROE-S, an organization that brings together Spanish language educators to create, develop, and share high quality educational resources.