I'm originally from rural western Michigan, but more recently from Houston, Texas (USA).
Before Turkey, I have worked with speakers of Mayan languages in Guatemala who were learning to develop mother tongue education programs, I have managed off-site health care projects targeting invisible populations in western Michigan, USA, and assisted newly arrived political refugees from the Middle East learn how to integrate into US society in Houston, Texas.
More recently, I lived for nine years in Ankara, Turkey with my wife and children. For five of those years I worked under a contract with the United Nations Development Programme to assist in a joint program for sustainable development pilot projects in the southeastern region of Turkey -- the northernmost plains of Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers.
Later, still in Ankara, I helped coordinate the International Baccalaureate diploma program and develop other projects for a large Turkish private school. Those "other projects" at times included instigating more integration of ICT (especially Web 2.0) in education. This piqued my interest in the role of technology in education, learning and knowledge, and how the radical use of these technologies can disrupt traditional notions of education in beneficial ways.
Since August 2008 my family and I have been back in the Houston area. For more of my background and some technological milestones (including a couple of museum-quality PCs), you can read my post Many years and a few terabytes later.
Some of my favorite things are (besides my family): travel, maps, languages cuisines, and music. You'll find me digress now and then in this blog when something particularly enticing catches my attention.
Click on the Find Me link above to see some other places you might find me on the World Wide Web.
