My Story

I wear a few hats. As an adjunct lecturer on education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, I teach a course called Innovation by Design in the Technology, Innovation, and Education program. I first taught a version of this course in 1990-91 (a long time ago). Students work on projects of their own choosing, leveraging research and an iterative, agile development process to innovate in education. The course, and names to describe the process (research-based design, design-based research, design-based implementation research, human-centered design, and so on), have evolved over the years. Essentially we operate at the intersection of research, theory, and practice. Research from a wide range of sources informs and inspires theories of action that lead to innovative practices. We rapidly prototype and test those practices in context, feeding the research base and prompting revisions to the theories of action and the innovations. Innovations never work the first time, but we can learn from their early failures. So productive struggle is a bit part of the process.

Working at that intersection of research, theory, and practice is also central to my job as chief architect, learning sciences for the Intervention Solutions Group at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH). As my title suggests I focus on building (architect) based on the research (learning sciences). I like the mix of academic and commercial. The publishing world requires that you produce something valuable that can be used. That's a good obligation, and I've carried it since 1982 when I first came to HGSE to enter the doctoral program in what was then called TCLE (Teaching Curriculum and Learning Environments).

After graduating from Yale and teaching public high school for a few years, I came to Harvard and immediately connected with budding ed tech pioneers Tom Snyder and Rick Abrams. I joined them in 1982 and helped found Tom Snyder Productions, one of the early leaders in educational technology, while getting my doctorate. In late 2001 the company was acquired by Scholastic. In 2015 that Scholastic group was acquired by HMH. Over that 30-plus year span I created and helped to create scores of award-winning educational software programs - for home and school - a highly-acclaimed animated science TV series that ran on ABC Saturday Morning, some professional learning courses, and more. I teach, I speak, I do some writing, and I dig into projects.