I am particularly interested in the research, development, and use of technology to support learning. However, I have a soft spot for culturally relevant educational media. This includes, but is not limited to, picture books, computer software and web applications, video games, educational television programming, and cartoons and animation. I believe all children can learn and am particularly encouraging of African-American students in all grade levels to let their light shine.
I am terribly aware of all the challenges that may be placed in their path (those common ills known to cause what’s called the Academic Achievement Gap) and am interested in finding ways to increase their instrinic motivation as it relates to learning as well as developing educational media effective in knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer.
My interests at the iSchool of University of Maryland include human-computer interaction, visual communication and visual ethics, knowledge creation and knowledge representation, data/information visualization, and knowledge system design and evaluation.
I plan to use my background in illustration, animation, and computer science to create such educational media through the Center for Learning and Educational Media (CLEM), sponsored by Uplift, Inc. my nonprofit organization. I also intend to partner with various researchers and organizations to this end. Check out the links page to discover a growing list. Read a paper I wrote a few years ago that explains exactly how all this came to be. My Epistemology (a pdf document).