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About Mark Wagner (Part 1)

Well, as I start a new Quarter at Walden, I have once again been asked to write an introduction of myself for my classmates. I think that it makes a reasonable start for this blog as well.

-Mark

Intro Message

I have a single subject credential in English and was teaching sophomore English and senior AP English when I first had an opportunity to step into a leadership role as an Educational Technology Coordinator at Estancia High School in Costa Mesa, Ca. For the next three years I continued to teach AP English, but my contract was completed by 80% release time for technology. This was a great period of growth for me, both in terms of my technical skills, and in terms of my educational leadership skills.

In the fall of 2003, after starting a Ph.D. in Educational Technology at Walden University, I moved to a position on special assignment in the new Educational Technology department in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. I was the first employee other than the director, and was hired as a project coordinator to manage an Enhancing Education Through Technology grant that brought 1000 handheld computers to middle school students at two sites. As the department expanded, so did my special assignment. Starting in July 2004, I served nine sites as the Educational Technology Coordinator for Secondary Schools.

These experiences, and my studies at Walden put me in a position that helped me earn an Educational Technology Coordinator's position at the Orange County Department of Education, where I am currently involved in re-inventing that department.

Personal Information

Somehow I still manage to play hockey once or twice a week, and to play guitar from time to time (I wrote and recorded much more before starting at Walden.) I enjoy role playing games as well, though I hardly play right now - and I'm currently researching the potential of Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games to serve as consructivist learning environments.

And, of course, I still spend a lot of time with my wife, and a lot of that time working on the house we bought in August 2004