Location
Oakland, NJ
About
Birthday:
April 8
School / Work Affiliation:
Montclair State University
I am:
college or university staff
About Me:
I have been fortunate to have been recognized as one of "The Big Ten" most influential people in educational technology in 2011 by Technology & Learning Magazine and deemed One of Five To Watch in Education in NJ for 2012 by NJSpotlight. I am a veteran educator who was also named 2007 NJ Educational Technologist of the Year by the New Jersey Department of Education, recognized in 2012 by the New Jersey Commissioner of Higher Education for excellence in Teacher Education and received the "Making it Happen" Award in 2013 from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). As a result, I have spoken and written widely on the meaningful and appropriate integration of digital media as a tool for effective teaching and learning in the 21st Century. An early pioneer in the integration of teaching, learning and technology, I have worked as a K-12 teacher where my team of elementary school students won the ThinkQuest Jr. Educational Website Design Contest, as a school technology coordinator at the nationally recognized North Star Academy Charter School and as an award winning online learning designer at the Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) at Stevens Institute of Technology where I helped build and disseminate several innovative online science projects that integrate real-time data and collaborative technologies which were subsequently highlighted at the 2000 National Education Summit by former President Clinton as a best practice integration of internet technology in the science classroom. I was also one of the first educators to see the value of using the Internet for teaching and learning in the classroom and created one of the first popular web guides for teachers called TeacherTools.Net in 1996 while also designing and coordinating one of the first fully online professional development programs offered to more than 30,000 K-12 teachers around the nation via bigchalk.com in 2001. I currently serve as the founding director of the ADP Center for Teacher Preparation and Learning Technologies at Montclair State University where I provide more than 50,000 teachers, students and teacher educators annually with access to state-of-the-art teaching and learning spaces, a curriculum and instructional library, professional development workshops and conferences, and instructional media labs while also leading online learning design across the College of Education. As a part of my work in the ADP Center, I designed and implemented the nationally recognized Digital Backpacks for Teachers program funded by Verizon and created the often duplicated Classroom of the Future model funded by the ADP Foundation. This program was recently highlighted by the Center for Digital Education's Converge Journal as one of the Top Ten Stories in K-12 Education for 2011 and helped the Montclair State University College of Education and Human Services be recognized as one of the Top Ten Teacher Preparation Programs in the Nation in 2007 by Edutopia. In addition, through my work in the ADP Center, I have partnered with the first public Hybrid High School opened in New Jersey in 2011/12 to develop and facilitate an innovative professional development, curriculum design and digital learning support program for all of it's staff and students during it's inaugural year. I also developed, coordinate and teach the 21st Century Teaching Certificate Program where practicing educators engage in an intensive five-week hybrid learning experience that prepares them to use digital tools to build and facilitate inquiry based curriculum and instruction. In addition, I also founded and directed the federally funded and internationally recognized Silk City Media Workshop/e3 University after-school digital media/STEM program for more than 400 urban middle and high school students in Paterson, NJ. Silk City Media Workshop/e3University aims to bridge the digital divide while engaging at-risk students in using digital authoring and publishing tools for the purpose integrating creative expression and STEM learning. I also recently co-created and am now piloting an innovative Bullying Prevention Project that uses data to identify and counsel potential bullies and their victims while engaging them in a blended learning simulation that builds the critical empathy skills needed to foster a safe and nurturing learning environment (both in school and online). In addition, I am currently working intensively with 40 low income elementary school students from Paterson, NJ in developing their coding skills using Scratch as a tool to create and share interactive games both locally and globally. This summer and after-school camp is called camp/CODE. In addition to providing students with a creative outlet and skills that will help them throughout all aspects of their lives, this program aims to help revitalize a once thriving manufacturing city into a digital entrepreneurial zone. Finally, I currently serve on several advisory boards of schools and organizations interested in advancing technology's role as a meaningful and appropriate tool for teaching and learning and I have been a SIIA CODIE Award judge for the past five years where I evaluate educational software and web tools for teaching and learning.
