Why did you choose the field you're in?
I've always been incredibly interested in learning. I love learning new things myself, and I love having the chance to help others discover new things. Teaching chemistry was a great profession that allowed me to interact with and guide kids as they were exposed to ideas that were completely new to them. Eventually I become more interested in what kids were learning when they had complete freedom (not shackled by curriculum or testing requirements). This intested in student-driven or information learning environments is what lead me to seek a PhD in the Learning Sciences.
How did Greenville College prepare you?
The education program at Greenville College was outstanding. Dr. Blue and Dr. Wright had a huge impact on who I am as an educator. The most important lesson they taught me, that still drives my work today, is that the plan you have for your classroom are not the most important thing in your students' lives. As a teacher, that meant not only being sensitive to students' lives outside of the classroom, but also being open to following tangents and seemingly "unrelated" topics in class, despite what was planned. As a researcher, this means focusing on the person, rather than the institution. For me, designing good educational environments is all about understanding who the child is, and providing resources and tools for the individual to pursue their interests and achieve their goals.
What are you up to now?
After Greenville College, I taught high school chemistry for five years in both LA and outside of St. Louis at Belleville West High School. While teaching at Belleville, I also attended Washington University and got a MAEd in Instructional Process. In 2008, I left the classroom to begin a PhD in the Learning Sciences at Northwestern University. My work is basically guided by the belief that kids are incredibly complex and smart, and as educators, our job is to provide tools and resources to help children pursude their own interests. To do that, I focus on spaces where kids are engaged in activities of their own choosing and I design tools that allow them to build and construct computational artifacts. Recently I've been looking at how kids interpret science-related presentations found in popular commercial video games and I've been exploring new designs that can transform these games into powerful thinking space for creating and experimenting with science concepts.
What do you enjoy most about your field?
I really love what I do. The fact that my job is basically hanging out with kids while they "play" is amazing. I love hearing kids talk about things that interest them. It's so fun to listen as they enthusiastically describe in painstaking details their ideas and plans for some hobby project they've been working on. Being able to design that space, and help them achieve their goals is incredible!
