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Bernie Dodge

San Diego State University

United States of America - San Diego

Professor Emeritus of Learning Design and Technology at San Diego State University. Interested in educational game design, active learning, and making productive use of new technologies as they arrive.

Biography

After a degree in Electrical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a two-year stint in Sierra Leone as a Peace Corps volunteer, I earned my doctorate in Instructional Design, Development and Evaluation from Syracuse University. From there I lucked into the perfect job, joining the scrappy small department of Educational Technology at San Diego State. That job kept my full attention for 40 years and allowed me the freedom to invent more than a dozen courses. I've lived through my behaviorist phase, the Apple II Basic years, a love affair with HyperCard, total immersion in web and backend development, and a flirtation with virtual reality. Throughout it all, I've been drawn to thinking about ways to engage my students (and their students) in active participation and deep thinking. Coming up with the WebQuest model was a matter of having a good idea while things were still forming, and I continue to promote and refine the idea. Currently I'm taking a look at how educational games are designed with the goal of making them better than they currently are. Off topic, I'm also interested in photography, astronomy, amateur radio, and teaching myself Python.