Experience
For an overview of my work history and education, please see my resume (pdf).
Academic Work
I recently graduated from the University of North Carolina’s School of Information and Library Science (SILS). My master’s thesis, “Finding the Pulse: An Analysis of the Learning Management System Needs Assessment Process at the UNC School of Medicine” (pdf) explored the decision by the medical school to choose Sakai over Blackboard as its LMS of choice. I wrote a post giving a brief overview of the paper.
While at SILS I contributed to a tech report on user interfaces entitled “Click/Talk/Touch/Look/Think Here: User Interface with Virtual Space” (pdf). The paper explores various forms of input and output – keyboards, speech, gestures, biometrics, brain-computer interfaces, sensors in the environment – and their effect on human-computer interaction.
I also worked with a group exploring the educational potential of haptic (touch-sensitive) devices. We proposed a study that would use a device called the Novint Falcon to teach dissection virtually.
In a former life my ambition was to be a professor of Religious Studies, teaching the academic study of Buddhism and American Religions. My studies focused particularly on a textual and ethnographic study of two groups, the San Francisco Zen Center and the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association. I got my bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from the Western College Program. I also received a masters degree in Comparative Religion from Miami University in Ohio in 2000, writing a thesis entitled “Zen Masters, Real and Imagined: Modes of Authority in American Zen“.
In November of 2007 I gave a talk at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, discussing the use of religious technology, in a session entitled “Religion Born Digital” (doc). In January of 2008 I also spoke at the American Society for Church History’s Winter meeting in Washington, D.C., discussing pedagogical uses of the American Religions Timeline Project, which I founded the previous year.
Technical Skills
Software
Microsoft Project
Photoshop
Dreamweaver
Microsoft Office Suite
Flash
Camtasia
Audacity
Elluminate
Web Development:
XHTML
CSS
Javascript
XML, XSLT, XML Schemas (examples: XSD and the XML file it refers to)
SQL
Programming:
PHP
Python
BASH
Regular Expressions
Databases:
MySQL
Access
Content Management Systems/Learning Management Systems
WordPress
Plone
Drupal
Joomla
Sakai
Blackboard
Moodle
Operating Systems
Mac OSX
Windows
Unix/Linux