Kristin Uttech was at a conference when she received the email.

The Madison College Marketing instructor had just been selected to become a Google Glass Explorer and she had 10 days to accept the designation and purchase a pair of the $1,500 glasses. She applied to become an Explorer weeks earlier, with hopes to use the device in her mobile marketing classes at the College.

Aside from a recent one-day public sale, Glass is not being sold to the general public just yet. Instead, Google has been using the Explorer program to let consumers try it out and offer their feedback. The program is designed to accept people from computer programmers to stay-at-home moms, so Google can receive an assortment of perspectives.

“I really don’t bring the technical, programming background to the product … I’m looking at it from a marketing perspective,” Uttech said.

When she got back from the conference she talked to Dean of Business and Applied Arts Bryan Woodhouse and Associate Vice President of Learner Success Turina Bakken who agreed that Google Glass would be a great supplement to mobile marketing instruction.

“We are using these in the classroom to work with students that are in our mobile marketing classes to look at emerging technology and how marketers are going to be able to target consumers through some of these new devices,” Uttech said.

She mentioned that the wearable device is the next big thing in mobile technology. While fellow Marketing instructor Steve Noll has a watch that connects to his cellphone, Uttech has Google Glass, which is a pair of high-tech glasses that allow her to access the Internet with the swipe of a finger or a voice command and view content on a virtual screen that appears through a prism. Users can add prescription frames, sunglasses and ear buds to this optical-mounted head display (OMHD).

The goal of using this technology in mobile marketing classes is to give students experience with the technology and use it from the marketing perspective.

These skills are extremely important in this age where people feel a very personal connection to their mobile devices and few institutions are addressing that fact as vigorously as Madison College. This new Mobile Marketing certificate program has been approved by the Madison College Board and now sits in the hands of the Wisconsin Area Technical College System (WTCS), so that programming can be developed across the state.

Madison College is really an explorer in the word of mobile marketing and Uttech thinks that this is the perfect institution to pioneer these kinds of courses.

“When I talk to employers and when I research what’s happening in the industry, nobody else is doing a great job at providing people with digital marketing skills,” Uttech said, ”It’s really an area where I think Madison College could shine because we provide a really solid education for a great value in an area where not a lot of other people are jumping on board.”

While Uttech tries to stay up-to-date on all the technology and advancements available in the marketplace, she says it’s a difficult task because this field is so constantly changing. She even learns from her students who bring up new technologies and applications in their emerging technologies presentations and class discussions.

Uttech, who brings about 20 years of corporate marketing experience to the College, says she likes giving students the chance to try products like Google Glass.

“What I love is watching them put the Glass on and actually use them in the classroom because they’re like kids in a candy store,” she said, “This is a new technology that they haven’t seen before and it’s really exciting for them to get the opportunity to use these. It’s an experience that they can’t have outside of the classroom.”