Dodge

=Bernie Dodge= //There will always be paper-based books, but I think at some point in this decade it will make economic sense to distribute textbooks in purely digital form. Once there's a light, durable, wireless appliance that's cheap enough, schools will be able to assemble the best parts of what each publisher has to offer and download whatever parts are needed, as they are needed. That means that the information will probably be much more up-to-date and supplemented by access to human tutors and a community of other learners. That all takes money, of course, so let's hope that the economy continues to perk along nicely and that taxpayers see the value of putting more resources into schools.// From [|//Meet Bernie Dodge:// //The Frank Lloyd Wright// //Of Learning Environments//]

Bernie Dodge is currently a Professor of Educational Technology at San Diego State University. He is responsible for developing the educational software packages PLANalyst and HomeMaker. He has traveled around the United States giving workshops and conferences. Dodge is now working on Project mGage funded by the Qualcomm Wireless Reach program. The project is experimenting with putting smartphones into the hands of student teachers and their students.

Dodge began his career by teaching math in Sierra Leone for the Peace Corps for two years after graduating from the Worcester Polytechnic Institue with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. Upon returning to the United States he began working for his alma mater as a junior administrator responsible for helping to design new programs and projects. From there he went to Syracuse University where he earned both his M.A. and Ph.D. in Instructional Design. After completing his education he began working at San Diego State University.

Dodge devleoped PLANaylst in 1994. Teachers at the elementary, secondary, and college levels were included in the testing of the software. PLANaylst is used by teachers to assist with lesson planning, improvements to lessons, and teaching strategies. The software analyzes descritions of learners and content to choose tecniques from dozens of strategies that are backed by teacher journals and ERIC documents.

HomeMaker was developed as a free tool to create personal home pages without worrying about HTML. It is a HyperCard stack that allows you to type information regarding your email address, background, interests, and goals. The information is formatted in HTML by a single button click and prepares the file to be placed on a server.

Dodge's work is centered on computer-based learning environments focusing on design, implementation and evaluation. He believes that it is important to make things interesting and has focused on developing instructional simulations and games. His involvement with schools and teachers led to being named to the eSchoolNews Total Impact 30 list in January of 2000.

In my opinion the PLANalyst software combines all of the elements of lesson planning that we learn as a part of our education and combines it in one program. The program helps teachers plan better lessons and improve upon then with suggestions from the software. HomeMaker helps educators create personal home pages that can be readily available to students, parents, and other educators. In today's technological society it is important to stay connected.

[|Bernie Dodge Website] [|PLANalyst 1.1 Software] [|HomeMaker]

AE