Doctoral Advisor

I mentor three doctoral students at Georgia State University. I advise them on coursework and program milestones, and I oversee their research. I have graduated one PhD student. I am accepting applications for new doctoral students who are interested in computing education via my department’s Instructional Technology Ph.D. program.

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Computer Science Endorsement

I am the program coordinator and designer of the Computer Science Endorsement at GSU. The year-long, 12-credit endorsement program is for teachers who are interested in adding computer science (grades P-12) to a teaching certificate in another content area. The program was specifically designed for the needs of in-service teachers, and it is 100% online. During the fall, candidates take 1 class about digital literacy and cybersecurity (LT 7500). During the spring, candidates take 1 class about computational thinking and human-computer interaction (LT 7501). During the summer, candidates take 2 classes about computer science instructional methods (LT 7502) and programming concepts for K-12 teachers (LT 7503).

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Courses Taught

Digital and Information Literacy

This is the first course of the Computer Science Endorsement program (LT 7500) for teachers. It was designed for teachers who have no prior experience in computer science and focuses on concepts that would be taught at the elementary level. This course also discusses data science and visualization techniques.

Computational Thinking and Human-Computer Interaction

This is the second course of the Computer Science Endorsement program (LT 7501) for teachers. Because most teachers in the program are already certified in another discipline, this course focuses on teaching computational thinking through computing integration in their primary discipline. Teachers develop computing integrated activities to use in their current courses while learning basic computing concepts.

Theoretical and Cognitive Foundations of the Learning Sciences

I teach an introduction to the Learning Sciences course (LT 8100) for graduate students. It is an online, synchronous course with masters and doctoral students. Once a month, the doctoral students and I meet to practice applying concepts to research design. My goal for the course is to introduce students to major methods, cognitive theories, and ways of providing evidence and to develop their skill in thinking and researching like a learning scientist.

Computer Skills for the Information Age

I teach a digital literacy course (LT 2010) for undergraduates. The course is an asynchronous, online course, so there are no course meetings. I recently updated the textbook that is used for the course: Computer Skills for the Information Age: An Early College Student’s Primer.

Instructional Design

I teach Instructional Design (LT 7100) for masters students. The course is a synchronous, online course. My major goal for this course is to have students to engage with each other and an activity-focused class using the online platform.

Critique of Education Research

I teach a seminar-style course for doctoral students on critiquing research (LT 9900). We discussed theoretical frameworks, methods, and designs. The students completed 5 major assignments to develop their professional skills related to conducting research and being a scholar.

I also like to teach research design and methods, though I don’t get the chance in my current program. Instead I have created a blog series about research design to share with graduate students and others looking to refine their social science research skills.