Greetings Gentle Readers

This website is a living collection of resources, ideas, and projects I have compiled from work and play. It's best if you keep your tongue in your cheek while exploring this website. It makes the links work better.

What Am I Doing Lately?

Spring 2010 term is here. The term is not as I thought it would be a few weeks ago. I am taking 4 classes, which I have never done. Somehow I'm hangin' on. In Educational Psychology, I'm taking EDPY 500 - Survey of Research Methods in Education, with Sharon Newbill, and EDPY 505 - Quantitative Research Methods with James Selig. I assume these courses are going to make an academic out of me. Seeing as I have discovered a new-found joy of reading academic papers, this should bode well for me. Next I'm taking Bruce Noll's OLIT 562 - Team Development. We have a good group in the class. Last, I'm also taking a course from Language and Literacy and Sociocultural Studies in the COE, LLSS 614 - Vygotsky Seminar, with the veritable Dr. Vera John-Steiner. It has got to be the best course I've ever taken.

I am undergoing a transformation from all the reading I'm doing of academic papers in Vygotskian theory, Digital Games, Learning Theory, Metacognition, Game Design, and other areas of Cognitive Science and Instructional Design. My Annotated Bibliography, hosted at My Wiki, contains some of these readings.

In Search of the Shining Mind

Since Spring 2008, I've been a graduate student in the Master's program in Organizational Learning and Instructional Technology (aka OLIT) at University of New Mexico.

My emphasis of study in the OLIT program is in Instructional Technology. I am interested in Interaction Design, Computer Simulations, Video for Instruction, Cognitive Science, Cognitive Psychology and the list goes on.

The majority of my OLIT courses so far have been with Dr. Fengfeng Ke. I have also studied with Dr. Mark Salisbury, Dr. Bruce Noll, and Dr. Patsy Boverie, our Department Chair.

Summer 2009, I attended Principles of Classroom Learning (EDPSY 510) with Dr. Roxana Moreno and I took an independent study on ActionScript 3.0 with Dr. Ke.

Some Background Info

Madame Philosophe has been my online moniker for over a decade now. When I was in art school I was fascinated with the French Revolution and some of the darker aspects of the Age of Enlightenment. I wouldn't call myself a revolutionary, but I think it's time to change how we how we think about many things in this modern time of ours. Outside of my studies in cognitive science and interaction design, I've always been intrigued by writings on art, philosophy, and gender. So the moniker fits quite nicely.

When Salon.com came into being, I was utterly distraught because that's something I would have liked to host: an online community dedicated to intellectual topics. (Now you are lucky if you can find a domain name that is less then 10 characters long — madamephilosophe.com is 16 characters long, you know.) I just didn't act fast enough. Tant pis for me. Honestly, I don't find that salon to be all too classy (Did they discuss sports during the Age of Enlightenment??? I don't think so.) and that website is fairly confusing to me.

I also love the Surrealists of the early 20th Century, but Madame Dada seemed much too pretentious and confrontational. Maybe if I ever write for Exquisite Corpse, I'll make that my nom de plume.

Still reading? In that case, I'll tell you I have a BFA in photography from the San Francisco Art Institute. I've studied under Linda Connor, Reagan Louie, Jack Fulton, Doug Hall, & Carlos Villa, but this was sometime ago. One of my favorite SFAI instructors was the venerable Ray Mondini, but I can't find him anywhere. If you know where he is, will you let me know? His class, "Methodologies of Modernism" was a pivotal moment in my life.

You may be surprised to learn that I even have an AA in Fashion Design (with an emphasis in production) from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (aka FIDM), long before they even had a website. I have worked as a fabric use analyst for Jeanne-Marc, a line manager for Karen Alexander, and a stitcher for the San Francisco Opera. I have the skill to hem your pants or tailor a suit, but I won't, so please don't ask.

I have been doing websites since 1996 as a freelancer. Many of these have disappeared into mists of time. Here are some I've done recently. I've also done some small Flash projects and these should amuse you.

Last Updated 02/12/10