[iDC] MobilityShifts Introductions: Michael Preston

[Michael Preston]

Dear IDC friends,

It seems only appropriate to send out my self-introduction on the
heels of that of my friend and former colleague Jonah Bossewitch.  We
co-authored a chapter on video annotations for "Learning Through
Digital Media,"
http://learningthroughdigitalmedia.net/teaching-and-learning-with-video-annotations

As he noted, we'll be hosting a hands-on workshop to share our
experiences and demonstrate our tools:
http://mobilityshifts.org/workshops/teaching-with-video-workshop-featuring-mediathread/

Until February, I worked with Jonah at CCNMTL, a service organization
at Columbia University that supports the use of technology for
teaching and learning, including many applications we developed
ourselves (http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/portfolio/ ).  My own research
interests are more related to learning and cognition, so in addition
to serving as the project manager for some of these tools, I've
conducted some small studies on how students' thinking changed as a
result of using them, e.g.:
http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/vital/nsf/VITAL_AERA_2010_PRESTON.pdf

Since February, I've been working at the NYC Department of Education,
where I'm running a federally-funded broadband adoption project called
Connected Foundations that's enabling us to develop a new digital
literacy course in a custom web environment and to pilot it in 50
transfer schools (small, second-chance schools for kids at high risk
of not graduating).  We will also be giving netbooks to 5,000 of these
students, along with opportunities to obtain free/subsidized
broadband.  We're making the course really fun and challenge-based,
and I'm very interested in creating a mobile version, so I hope to
learn a lot from you all.

Looking forward to meeting you!

Michael Preston
http://about.me/mdpreston