About Me...
My Background
I have taught all grades, K-12, as well as undergraduate
and adult courses. My 20+ years experience in Education
ranges from teaching middle school Math/Science in the
regular classroom to instructing adults in English and
Literacy classes in Benin, Africa. My areas of professional
expertise include elementary and secondary education,
computer science, curriculum development, educational
technology, educational webpage design, history, philosophy,
programming, and multicultural studies. Also, I have
extensive course work and experience in curriculum and
instruction, educational psychology, general teaching
methods, special education, supervision, and multicultural
education.
For me, working in education helps feed my need to
discover and create, and my passion for the sharing
of Knowledge. My greatest pleasures come from teaching,
and research in assessment tools, distance
learning curriculum design, and learning
game environments.
My Rubrics
My interest in assessment tools is very personal. Basically,
it stems from my own encounters with professionals and
their rubrics and assessment tools. Early in my college
experience I faced a severe illness resulting in a large
cranial abscess which placed extreme pressure on my
left frontal lobe. Not only did it jeopardize my life,
but it also directly affected my short-term memory and
speech centers. After the abscess was removed, I had
to literally relearn how to communicate and learn through
speech therapy, adopting new cognitive strategies, and
adapting to meet new challenges.
As part of my cognitive recovery, I needed to adopt
several learning
compensation strategies. I was also given a
fascinating battery of learning style and cognitive
ability exams, assessments and inventories (these included:
the Wechsler
Adult Intelligence Scale -R; the Myers-Briggs
Type Indicator; the Gregorc
Style Delineator; the Oltman,
Raskin and Witkin's Embedded Figures Test; and,
the Swassing/Barbe
Modality Index). In fact, the greatest challenge
for me was a shift from being a mixed Audio/Kinesthetic
leaner to primarily a Visual learner. When I read the
SBMI Visual
Modality description it's like looking at a mental
Polaroid of my psyche. I have posted the above listed
assessment and inventory results here.
Major Areas of Interest
- Computer science,
educational technology and computer-based information systems in education.
- Student /
classroom assessment.
- Distance
learning / e-learning.
- Elementary
and secondary education curriculum development and instruction.
- 3D Game development
/ design, and game applications in elementary and secondary education
learning environments.
- Current tends
in programming languages (specifically: HTML, SGML, VRML, XML,
Javascript, Java, LiteC, C, C++, and Visual Basic).
- East Asian history
and culture
- Arts
- Cultural
artifacts (specifically: arms, armor, lacquer-ware, and fabrics).
- Thought
- Religion
- Political
Chronologies
Current Research Agenda
- Educational
technology and instructional design: focusing
on the developmental principles and content of educational
website design. Specifically, I am currently surveying
the freshman and junior populations at over 30
university and college campuses, as well as the
college Admissions, Computer Science, and Mathematics
departments for their needs, wants, and requirements
from a college preparatory computer science curriculum.
This dovetails with a study that I recently completed
of common
college and university entry level technology literacy
standards.
Additionally,
I am developing a three course online distance learning
curriculum for the College
Board AP Computer Science A exam. This includes
a comparative study of 3D engines (LiteC / C / C++
/ Java) and learning environments (specifically,
StarLogo
TNG and 3D
Game Studio).
- History and
culture: focusing on Japanese sword history, restoration and preservation.
Specifically, the book I am currently writing relates to the anatomy
of tsuka-maki by describing and graphing the historical, cultural,
and physical aspects of thirty different styles of tsuka.
Professional Affiliations
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