FASTtech Instructor Biographies
Please note: Some of the
instructors listed on this page are not teaching classes during the
current session. Go to the
online
schedule to see our current offerings and instructors.
Michael
Allen is currently a second grade teacher in Daly City where
he is the school site technology coordinator. He has taught
for the past 11 years in variety of educational settings across the
country and overseas in Japan. He has written and developed
several award winning curriculum projects. He is a member of
the Jefferson Elementary School Districts Technology Task Force,
where he is helping to develop district wide technology integration
policies and procedures. He participated in the 2004 EWYL
Institute and is currently pursuing a M.A in Instructional Technology
at San Francisco State University. He has BA in Anthropology
from UC Berkeley and a MA in Elementary Education from Columbia
University.
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Miguel F. Aznar directs the nonprofit
corporation KnowledgeContext, which promotes technological literacy
through curriculum. He authored the book "Technology Challenged:
Understanding Our Creations and Choosing Our Future." He is also
the Director of Education for the Foresight Nanotech Institute and
serves on the Educational/Consulting Advisory Board of the
Acceleration Studies Foundation. He is a graduate of the University
of California at Berkeley with a degree in Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science.
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Gayle Britt teaches 7th grade social
studies/English core at Central Middle School in San Carlos and is
associate director of curriculum and instruction at High Tech High
Bayshore in Redwood City where she provides professional development
and support to HTHB faculty. Ms. Britt is a Foothill College FASTtech
instructor of face to face and online classes and has been an EWYL
trainer since 2001. She was named 2001 National Technology Teacher of
the Year. She holds secondary credentials in history, English, and
ESL and has an MA in Educational Technology. As a National Board
certified teacher she coaches National Board candidates at Stanford
University. She also leads teacher-training programs and presents at
national conferences.
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Steven Caringella is a part-time instructor at Foothill College's Krause Center for Innovation. With an M.A. in Education from Bethany University, and one in Instructional Technology from San Jose State, Steve has provided professional development in educational technology at the school and district levels, in addition to teaching FastTech classes at the KCI. With ten years of experience in bilingual and English-only K-12 settings, Steve was a strong contributor to the KC's MERIT Program (formerly EWYL), serving both as Fellows mentee and mentor, supportingeducators in acquiring technology skills. When he's not teaching FastTech classes at the KCI, you can find Steve teaching Fourth Grade at Zanker Elementary School in Milpitas Unified School District.
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William Cavada has received his B.A in Art
Education with an emphasis in Conceptual Design and Art History from
San Francisco State University and a Master Degree in Instructional
Technology from San José State University. He has been an
educator for the past eight years. He is currently a tenured art
teacher at Mt. Pleasant High School, in the East Side Union High
School District. He has implemented and created new and innovative
ideas into the art department, which have included an introductory
course to art, an animation courses and a multimedia/graphics course.
In each course, technology integration has been a key component for
delivering and accessing content. Currently, he is co advisor for the
school’s Cardinal Quill, an award wining literary magazine as
well as the schools advisor for the yearbook. He has been in graphic
design for over 20 years and is skilled in a variety of technical
systems and software. He has a working knowledge of both the Windows
and Mac systems. He is proficient in a variety of desktop
applications which include, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator,
Freehand, Director, Fontographer, Dreamweaver, and Flash. He has also
developed multimedia instructional material using interactive
programs and web based learning curriculum.
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Robert Cormia is a full-time faculty member
at Foothill College, where he teaches XML, bioinformatics,
informatics, and nanotechnology. Bob's background includes a long
career in technology and business development while working at
Surface Science Laboratories, specializing in materials analysis and
new market development. After entering the Internet in 1994 as an
educator and Web developer, Bob developed the eCommerce curriculum at
Foothill College. Bob joined Foothill College full-time in fall 2001,
where he developed courses in Internet projects, XML for biologists,
bioinformatics, and the upcoming nanotechnology program. He completed
the UCSC extension Certificate in Bioinformatics in 2003, and helped
to develop Foothill College's certificate in bioinformatics. Bob now
pursues research topics in Semantic Web Technologies, and business
strategies for distributed solar energy production to combat global
warming.
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Dorothy
Cowell is a third grade teacher
at Bullis School in Los Altos, CA. She has been a
curriculum developer,
member of the leadership team, and trainer for the Santa
Clara County
Office of Education’s Internet Institute. She has a B. A. and
a Masters degree from SUNY. She is currently pursuing a
M. A. in Instructional
Technology at San Jose State University.
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Janet Davis has been an elementary
school teacher for 12 years. She also worked as a web developer at
NASA Ames and was an Instructional Designer for Foothill/DeAnza
Learning Technologies Division. She was interim staff and technology
trainer at De Anza College and taught computer graphics and
animation. Currently she works as a freelance graphic artist,
instructional designer, and web developer. She teaches Art History,
Multimedia, Web Design and Internet at National Hispanic University
and University of Pheonix. Janet has an MA in Instructional
Technology from San Jose State, and a graduate level certificate in
Online Instructional Delivery from Cal State Hayward.
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Sharon Eilts
is a special education teacher
at Ellis School in Sunnyvale. She is an Apple
Distinguished Educator
and a member of the curriculum and leadership teams for the Santa
Clara County Office of Education’s Internet
Institute. She holds
Masters Degrees in Special Education and Educational
Administration.
She is currently pursuing a M. A. in Instructional
Technology at San
Jose State University.
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Kathy Fransham has
been a technology trainer at Foothill College since 1989
and is currently
a member of the Krause Center for Innovation staff at
Foothill College. She has a Master's degree
in Instructional Technology from San Jose State
University.
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David Garrido has been the faculty and staff technology trainer at both Foothill College and De Anza College. He currently works as the instructional designer in the Foothill College Distance and Mediated Learning department. Special interests include the Macintosh, Web publishing, and the Internet.
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Chris Heumann teaches 7th grade science
in Cupertino as well as technology classes for teachers through UCSC
and SCCOE. For the past 18 years, his innovative, practical, and
personalized style of instruction has empowered thousands of teachers
to increase the effectiveness of instruction through the utilization
of technology.
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Rushton Hurley teaches Japanese at Wilcox High School in Santa Clara and runs a nonprofit which focuses on the use of digital video. He speaks at conferences around the United States on using technology to better engage learners, and has been a principal of an online high school, a teacher trainer, an educational technology researcher, and a school reform coordinator who has worked and studied on three continents. His two masters degrees are from Stanford, where his research included using speech recognition technology with beginning students of Japanese in computer-based role-playing scenarios for developing language skills. In addition to being a proud veteran of KCI's Earn While You Learn program, he was one of the inaugural group of Google Certified Teachers in 2006.
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Ted Kahn is the co-founder and
CEO of
DesignWorlds for
Learning, Inc., a co-founding principal of
CapitalWorks, LLC, and is the
first and only NMC Fellow of the
NMC: New Media Consortium. He has been
a Senior Fellow at the UCLA Graduate School of Education &
Information Studies, a GLEF Fellow and member of the Speakers Bureau
of
The George Lucas
Educational Foundation. During the 1990's, he was a
Senior Research Scientist & Technology Strategist with the
Institute for Research on Learning (IRL), where he was a co-founder
of the US Dept. of Education-funded Silicon Valley
Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project.
Ted has been an employee, advisor, consultant or a member of the
board of directors with several Silicon Valley high tech companies
and R&D organizations, as well as national/international agencies
and public-private alliances, including: Lawrence Hall of Science,
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Atari, Picodyne, Digital F/X,
U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), Apple,
Microsoft, the National Academy of Sciences, National Science
Foundation, the Children's Discover Museum of San Jose, USAID, the
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and UNESCO & the United
Nations Development Program. He has worked with teachers and students
around the world helping them to use technology for global
collaborative projects for over 30 years.
Ted is internationally known as a pioneer and innovator
in action-research projects and award-winning commercial products and
web communities involving technology and learning in schools, homes,
workplaces and museums. He is talso he founding director of
the
Bay Area Science
Education Collaboratory. He holds a B.A. in computer science
(with honors) and an M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology, all from the
University of California, Berkeley. For more information, visit
Design Worlds for
Learning.
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Jackie
Kawashima served as Technology Curriculum Specialist for the Oak
Grove School District and continues to work with the district as a
consultant. She is a former K-4 teacher who has integrated technology
into her curriculum. She has extensive PC networking,
troubleshooting and training experiences and was a member of the
Leadership Team, Curriculum Developer and Trainer for the Santa Clara
County Office of Education's Internet Institutes, and a Curriculum
Developer and Facilitator for Classroom Connect's Connected
University. She participated in extensive technology integration
research as a MetLife Fellow. She has a BA and Masters Degree from
San Jose State.
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David Marasco is
a full-time faculty member at Foothill College. He has a PhD and MS
in Physics from Northwestern University and a BS in Physics and BA
in Philosophy from UC San Diego. He has been teaching physics in one
form or another since 1991. He is the director of Foothill's
Oral Histories of Science
Project.
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Sharon Meyers has a Master's degree in
Instructional Technology. She is currently Curriculum Coordinator
for Trinity School in Menlo Park, and is also an
education technology
consultant with NPC Consulting specializing in curriculum
integration
and staff development. Her background includes 20 years in software
engineering and engineering management, and several years
as a classroom
teacher and technology administrator.
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Susan Morosoli teaches 8th
grade English and Broadcast Media at Jordan Middle School in Palo
Alto. This year, JTV Jordan's first television station was launched.
She teaches students and teachers how to use video production
effectively to create news segments, commercial, PSA's,
documentaries, and feature stories. She has worked as a
director/producer/writer creating and producing video documentaries
and web site information for Native Films in San Francisco and
various other production houses in Los Angeles and New York.
She has directed and produced two award-winning documentaries as well
as worked as a director/writer/producer for Lifetime and E!
Television. Sue has a BA in Social Science and Communications from
University of California Berkeley, a MS in Education from Bank
Street College of Education, New York, NY , and Film Certificate New
York University, New York, NY and has been a United States Peace
Corps Volunteer in Ecuador, SA.
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Joe Ragey is an
interdisciplinary instructor in both the Fine Arts and Communication
Division and the CTIS Division at Foothill College where he teaches
performance arts design, graphic design, lighting design, computer
graphics, multimedia design, WEB design, DVD authoring and CAD
software, along with drawing for graphic designers and Illustrators,
storyboarding and painting courses. Joe holds an MFA in Art and
Computer Graphics and Multimedia Design from CADRE Institute at SJSU
and an MFA in Performance Design from SFSU. He has taught computer
graphic software with FASTtech since it's inception. He is a signature
member of United Scenic Artists and is a nationally recognized, award
winning Performance Arts designer.
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Laura Silberstein is a technology
learning coordinator for the Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project. She
has a PhD from Brandeis University in biology.
Curently she
is an Internet trainer & multimedia software trainer (web page
authoring, Hyperstudio, Photoshop, MS Office &
PowerPoint, QuickTime
Pro, Adobe Premiere, SUN Solaris Netra system admin, Apple Network
Admin Toolkit).
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Michael Simkins earned a
bachelor’s degree at the University of California Santa Barbara
and master’s and doctorate degrees at UCLA. He was a teacher
for 15 years and an elementary school principal for 9 years. From
1996 to 2001, he directed the Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project which
was cited by the U.S. Department of Educationas one of two exemplary
educational technology programs in the nation. Michael is now
director of TICAL, the California Department of Education’s
statewide education technology service for school administrators. He
has presented keynote speeches, concurrent sessions and hand-on
workshops at many regional and national conferences including
Computer Using Educations, Inc. (CUE) and the Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).
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Steve Tatum has a master's
degree in Instructional Technology from San Jose State University. He
taught Science 1&2 at Pegasus High School for five years. Before
teaching at Pegasus he taught computer skill classes at the Central
County Occupational Center in San Jose. He has developed a passion
for computer aided instruction and the application of web content in
education. His main interest is working with educators' on how to use
technology in the classroom.
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Donna Taylor
has her Master's Degree in
Instructional Technology and is currently a Technology
Coordinator/Educator
in the Mountain View-Whisman School District. She is a
member of the Educational Technology Consortium Board and a trainer
for the Earn While You Learn Summer Institute at the Krause Center
for Innovation. As a Palm Certified Trainer and FASTtech instructor, she
teaches classes on handheld computers, web design, iLife and
PowerPoint. Her middle school students have created websites that
have won the National Semiconductor Innovator Award and the Silicon
Valley Innovation Award.
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Ana Tolentino is a Spanish native speaker
and teaches various college levels of Spanish at San Jose State
University, Evergreen Valley College, Foothill College and Mission
College. She holds a B.A. in English and Spanish from San Diego State
University and a M.A. in Spanish from San Jose State University.
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