About Mark Wagner (Part 2)

Here is some additional biographical information I was asked to provide in our class discussion forum.

-Mark

Name: Mark Douglas Wagner

Information about your education/work experience: I work as an Educational Technology Coordinator for the Orange County Department of Education. I previously held this position at the Newport-Mesa Unified School District and at Estancia High School. I am also working towards a PhD in Educational Technology at Walden University.

Comfort level using technology:I am very comfortable using technology and I love learning new things. I have a good deal of experience using and configuring software, hardware, and LAN infrastructure… with some unique experience integrating Mac OS X and Windows XP with Active Directory (and Open Directory). I have spent some time learning Linux and a variety of Open Source software. I am comfortable with the command line and I do hack code from time to time, but unfortunately I cannot call myself a programer.

Experience with managing technology (if any): I was a high school tech coordinator for three years, and I probably learned more during this time than I have at any other in my life… about teaching, technology, leadership, organizational culture, and change. My IT partner and I completely overhauled the infrastructure and educational technology program at the site. This launched me into my role as a Project Coordinator (running an EETT grant which put 1000 handhelds into the hands of middle school students) at the district level, and then, briefly, the Educational Technology Coordinator for secondary schools (nine sites) before becoming a Coordinator of Educational Technology at the Orange County Department of Education, where I coordinate technology professional development for educators.

Research Interests: Broadly, using (primarily open-ended) technology to facilitate constructivist teaching and learning (context-embedded, inquiry-driven, socially negotiated learning). I spent some time this past year investigating the use of Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games to achieve this end. Lately, I have become enamored with the powers of the read/write web (blogs etc) to facilitate this kind of learning for students. I remain passionate about technical issues in their relationship to education; I am very interested in cross-platform interoperability and universal access to data. In this sense, open source software and 1:1 initiatives have my attention as well.

Hobbies: Well, I wrote and recorded music somewhat prolifically until August 2003, when I started Walden. I still try to get my hands on the guitar often and sing whenever I can… and I just recently set-up my ProTools rig for the first time since moving in August of ’04. I play hockey once or twice a week. Ironically, I love traditional pen, paper, dice, and imagination role playing games… computers just aren’t there yet. ;) I don’t have much time to play, though. I read science fiction when I can find something good. Oh, my wife and I watch the Gilmore Girls and Smallville religiously. :)

Also add information about your strategy for studying for this class: I set aside three hours a day for Walden most days… week nights and weekend mornings. I don’t bother planning anything for Friday night anymore, and something usually comes up on another night of the week, so I often wind up pulling longer hours on the weekends. Every Monday I lay out the tasks for the week and assign them to a day… and work my way through the list, adjusting as necessary.

About Mark Wagner (Part 1)

Well, as I start a new Quarter at Walden, I have once again been asked to write an introduction of myself for my classmates. I think that it makes a reasonable start for this blog as well.

-Mark

Intro Message

I have a single subject credential in English and was teaching sophomore English and senior AP English when I first had an opportunity to step into a leadership role as an Educational Technology Coordinator at Estancia High School in Costa Mesa, Ca. For the next three years I continued to teach AP English, but my contract was completed by 80% release time for technology. This was a great period of growth for me, both in terms of my technical skills, and in terms of my educational leadership skills.

In the fall of 2003, after starting a Ph.D. in Educational Technology at Walden University, I moved to a position on special assignment in the new Educational Technology department in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. I was the first employee other than the director, and was hired as a project coordinator to manage an Enhancing Education Through Technology grant that brought 1000 handheld computers to middle school students at two sites. As the department expanded, so did my special assignment. Starting in July 2004, I served nine sites as the Educational Technology Coordinator for Secondary Schools.

These experiences, and my studies at Walden put me in a position that helped me earn an Educational Technology Coordinator’s position at the Orange County Department of Education, where I am currently involved in re-inventing that department.

Personal Information

Somehow I still manage to play hockey once or twice a week, and to play guitar from time to time (I wrote and recorded much more before starting at Walden.) I enjoy role playing games as well, though I hardly play right now – and I’m currently researching the potential of Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games to serve as consructivist learning environments.

And, of course, I still spend a lot of time with my wife, and a lot of that time working on the house we bought in August 2004

Podcast Test

This is the last podcast I did on my old blog. I’ve used it only for a podcasting test. If you wish to receive this as a podcast it is best to subscribe to my bloglines feed.

-Mark

Closed Escrow

Well, I’ve discovered self hosting through blogger, and so I’ve closed escrow on a new blog. I may still do a good deal of remodeling and renaming, though.

My old blog can still be found at the URL below.

http://spaces.msn.com/members/markwagner/

However, you may be here because you tried to access my old static web sites. These can still be accessed (for the most part) at the URLs below.

Mark.Wagner.Name
MarkWagner.Info
MarkWagner.Org
MarkWagner.us

For the time being, this site will replace ALL of the above.

-Mark