Electronic Portfolio
Why I Love Technology and Children
Life is not fair, but it should be fair...at least to children. "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal"...should not be an empty promise of opportunity. I came from a very physically and mentally abusive poverty-rich home environment so I ran away a lot. I was fortunate in a way because my parent's cheap apartment was close to the richest neighborhood in town so my friends could afford computers in the era before Al Gore had invented the internet. So I was lucky to be "living" on the roof of a shopping center when the FBI came to arrest my best friend for electronically raiding Langley in an age where most people did not know that there was a device called a modem. I was even luckier when I was robbed at gun-point for a newspaper, while working one of my three trash jobs I used to pay my way through Texas A&M. Lucky, because the story of the robbery caused someone to take notice of the kid hanging out at the computer center and gave me a chance and my first job in Information Technology. This the same year that NCSA Mosaic came out. Since that time, it has been my personal mission to use technology to level the playing field for students.
Job History Overview: Beginnings
Well needless to say, I got my first "'real" job working remote labs for MIS/CIS at Texas A&M College Station and I loved it. I eventually worked my way up to network availability and had the honor of working with the latest equipment of the time, which include VAX clusters and a Cray supercomputer. However, I never had considered computers as a career, and so I wandered a bit taking classes I liked until I met my future godfather, Zoltan Koztolnyick, Professor of Medieval History. I had always loved to read, a great escape system the book, and I really liked medieval history (yes, I am the D&D nerd stereotype...). Anyway, the man saved me from my own hatred of the world and taught me that I could help best by teaching. So I embarked on becoming a history teacher on my to being a history professor...only I did not know that the market did not want history teachers...not when the history teacher could make things happen with a magic box called a computer. I graduated in December, and with a young family to take care of, took off to the one job that would ensure I would teach and not repair.
Rhodes Technology Academy
Rhodes Technology Academy is located in a very "bad" neighborhood. If by bad you mean there are a lot of poor folks and there is a lot of crime. When I was there it was supposedly the third "worst" neighborhood in the nation. When I arrived at what was then Rhodes Middle School there was a minor celebration in the teacher's work room because the pass rate on the state achievement test had reached a whopping 8 percent. I was escorted to my computer literacy class which had 48 students and 12 semi-functioning Apple computers. I was lucky, my soon to be best friend, William Davis of Purdue had three times as many in his drama classes that had to be held in the auditorium. Rhodes was a long hard fight, and it was by far the best time of my career. I created twelve middle school technology electives from scratch, some of which are still used in Texas, funded the equipment from grants, and finally was allowed to become a magnet school. Along the way, SAISD wanted me to coordinate the thing, so I got a Masters in Administration from University of Texas. We got a lot of attention from the Texas State Dept of Ed folks and then Governor Bush. Eventually, we perhaps got too big and politics came into play. When folks started asking me to break promises to the kids I could not, so I left to go study under Gerald Knezek. I am very proud to say that I left Rhodes with a pass rate of almost 90% on state tests, and that this was the result of a team effort. A bloody effort that literally destroyed some good folks, but by far the best work I have ever done. Oh and in case you are wondering..we NEVER taught to the test. In a district where it was not unusual for a child's electives to be PE, PE, and PE do to a lack of teachers and funding (yes that's right, a steady diet of test practice and lap running day in and day out) we gave students skills and the hope that they could eventually build those skills up to the point where they could get a job that would enable them to leave the Barrio. I have letters of commendation from both President Clinton and Governor Bush for my efforts in San Antonio, but you will not see them here because ultimately the system, and I, failed to deliver fully upon our promises to the children. However, despite many efforts to the contrary, I am proud to say that the Academy is still there. I think the best way to show off the work there is to let the children do the talking.
Artifacts
1. A student produced promotional video from about 2000 or so.
2. Student produced Flash work. <click here>
Gerald Knezek and Aubrey Independent School District
Gerald saved me. I took what I then saw as my district's betrayal of my children very hard. I was lucky that I had already been working with Gerald for some time and had been flying back and forth to take classes from him at UNT. It was Gerald more than anything else, that landed me my job as a technology director, as long as I agreed not to keep it. Only Gerald could see a full-time job as a technology director as simply a means to pay for your education (the only thing that really matters :)) I will never forget when he told me "I am not training you for any job other than being a professor ...anything else is a waste of your talent." It turns out that I learned a lot from the Directorship and even more for Gerald. I was fortunate at Aubrey. I already knew a lot of folks at the Texas State Department of Education and I knew Don Knezek (Gerald's brother) from the Regional Service Center in San Antonio, so I was able to leverage knowledge and contacts into some great programs all while flying around the world with Gerald doing research. To say I love research is a great understatement. Research, technology, and kids in any combination and I am one happy, fuzzy, fat man. When it came time to leave I became very sad because our research group IITTL was and is my family, and I can not put into words how much I care for people like Gerald, Rhonda Christensen, Tandra Wood, Theresa Overall, Cesaro Morales and too many others to name. I NEVER realized just how good Gerald was until I left. I see far too many people in our field who only think of their career, but Gerald honestly only thinks of science, helping children and having fun and I find that so much more pure, or in the words of my mentor....elegant.
UNT Artifacts
1. Over my time with Gerald, I spent many years working on the online instruments and data gathering systems (no surveymonkey or formsite then !!!). Even today the IITTL site is thoroughly saturated with my work (although Gerald has much better designers working for him now). I was principally responsible for getting the instrument up with its reliability and validity information and then making sure we could link it with the database of the week we seemed to be using. Click here to view the IITTL site. I really have no idea how many projects we did, but it was quite a few, and they all basically involved getting the data from some remote location into a form for SPSS. I am not sure but we had to really be in the forefront of online data gathering because when we did this there were no real commercial options out there. Now of course I use formsite and am fortunate to have access to an international pool of teachers through my corporate contacts.
2. I have been lucky enough to pick up the odd award or two, but no honor I have received has filled me with more pride than when Gerald gave me some slides in his acceptance speech as President of SITE. I am extremely proud of my pedigree which is Wilcoxian, Dunn-Rankin, Knezek...but I never mention it to people to be a jerk, but rather to convey the sense of obligation I feel to keep the scholarship moving and the academic role as the most important thing in my life. I am proficient because I owe it to my students, my pedigree and my field to be so. Gerald taught me that academics work best as a team whose only real goal is the advancement of knowledge (and to have fun in the process of that advancement). Click here to view the powerpoint. I'm the fat fuzzy one behind the desk on 39 or so, in the Powerpoint, Gerald is talking about our ongoing efforts to examine the relationship between technology integration and achievement. On later slides, Gerald shows his award for the best research paper of the year from ISTE for 2007 of which I was lead author, but which would not have been possible without my family, namely Gerald and Rhonda. I love that award because it represents my working relationship with the IITTL family. I feel that my best theoretical work from my doctoral period dealt with the expansion of the WST model and my restructuring of Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development to include semi-intelligent tools as a partner. Both of these ideas have been established, have publication histories (not just through my own stuff) and have served as foundations for other researcher's work (which is so very rewarding).
Aubrey Artifacts
1. I was very busy during my doctoral work as I was taking and teaching classes at night, while working full time as a technology director. The director's position provided me with a lot of practical experience in all things ed-tech and central office, where before most of my experience was what I would now consider instructional technology and campus administration. Click here to view a steering committee report rough draft which shows the scope of projects that I dealt with on a daily basis.
Southeastern Louisiana University
I was asked to come to Southeastern by Diane Allen, who was our Assistant Dean at UNT and was the New Dean of College of Education here. Dean Allen wanted research people to goose the College's level of professional productivity. I had made it to the final two candidates (out of 72 :)) for a position with University of Hawaii Manoa which was another possible option, and Gerald was wanting me to also consider going to Japan to work with friends there. Considering that I was already taking a pay cut to become a professor, Southeastern won because of Diane and the high cost of living in Tokyo and Oahu. With all due respect to my awesome friends in Hawaii and Japan this was fortunate as I have really enjoyed being at Southeastern and have been very productive here. Probably, the smartest thing I have done since being here is hiring Dr. Becky Parton who later became my research partner and collaborator on many projects. Of course, of all our work I am most proud of LAMBERT, our software/hardware system that teachers ASL because I can see it in the classroom helping those who need it. My research interests are varied and based upon my loves of technology and my need to see technology used as a tool for leveling the playing field. People who know me sometimes puzzle at why I research and teach on technology in administrative practice, when I obviously hate administrative practice. The answer is simple, mistakes cost. Sometimes mistakes cost lives. I have made those types of mistakes as an administrator and I have to live with them. I see mistakes in our field being made because administration often does not understand what ed-tech is or how to use it, but they set the agenda. So I research and teach on tech in admin practice because someone has to do so and people like Scott Mcloud can't carry the load single-handedly. Look at all of my research areas and you will find them all grounded in using technology to spread opportunity for those who have none. Its no grand effort or anything like that, just an attempt to "not be evil" in the words of Google or more elegantly :) in the words of Mohandas Ghandi, " be the change that you want to see in the world." I want a world where no child need fear or suffer. Where equal opportunity is not a lie. For so many children, our free and appropriate education is the only chance they have. We are at a critical point in the history of learning and education. Technology is definitely not a panacea, but it can and does help students of all ages learn. Unfortunately, its application is complex and fraught with politics on multiple fronts. It needs people to untangle the skeins of truth, lies, hope, and fear that surround its use. Good people with good intentions. I owe everything I have to people like that and those are the type of people I like to surround myself with. I have been lucky to find success but a child should not have to be lucky to have a future, and that's why I do what I do.
"I find it the greatest poverty that somewhere a child must die so you may live as you wish" -Mother Theresa
SELU Artifacts
1. I was very proud to coauthor LAMBERT, while I have done a great many projects at SELU, none have given me the satisfaction of watching the kiddos happily using LAMBERT. I expect if you have read the rest of this page, I don't need to explain why I enjoy watching deaf and disabled children use a tool that might help level the playing field for them a bit. Click here to learn more about LAMBERT.
