Andrew J. Harris

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Education

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• B.S. Severe Disabilities Education
  May, 1990, IUPUI
  
• Currently Pursuing Master's degree, New Media Informatics, IUPUI
  M.S. Degree anticipated Dec 2002

Work Experience

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• 1995 - Present: Full time Lecturer, Department of Computer and Information Science, IUPUI, Indianapolis IN. Initially brought to department as only full-time faculty member dedicated to service courses. Served as coordinator of service courses, where I helped to develop several courses and a Certificate of Applied Computer Science. I also serve as the primary new course developer for the service course program, and as the manager of the streaming media lab. I currently serve on the leadership team for the service program, as the leadership structure of the program has evolved due to the growth of the program.
• 2000 - Present: Series Editor Absolute Beginners Series, Premier Press (formerly Prima Technical Publishing) Concieved a new book series teaching beginning programming skills through game development. Recruit and screen authors, review manuscripts, provide guidance for authors, and oversee overall quality control for the series.
• 1997 - Present: Author. I have written numerous national magazine articles (including the cover story for Internet 99 Magazine Fall issue) and book chapters. I am the primary author of three internationally marketed technology books (Java 2 Fast and Easy Web Development, JavaScropt Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Palm Programming for the Absolute Beginner), and I'm presently working on a fourth (C# Programmer for the Absolute Beginner - Due February 2002).
• 1988 - 1995: Part Time Instructor, Department of Computer and Information Science. Taught lab and lecture sections of introductory technology and programming courses.

• 1990 - 1995: Special Education Teacher, North Central High School, Washington Township, Indianapolis, IN. Developed curriculum and program modifications for young adults with severe disabilities, developed and administered behavior analysis/management programs, coordinated efforts of teaching and paraprofessional staff.

• 1987: Part time computer programmer, Software Development Corporation, Southport, Indiana. Computer programming in Pascal, various relational database management tools.

• 1982 - 1985: Swimming pool manager, SDHA Pool Sagamihara, Japan. Management of a swimming pool on a U.S. military installation in Japan.

Teaching Experience

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• Taught and developed classes on introduction to computer technology, various applications, use of the Internet, Pascal, Visual Basic, Word Basic, Javascript, Perl, Virtual Reality, Java, Multimedia, CS Theory, and general problem solving.

• Taught essential life skills to young adults with severe cognitive disabilities

• Tutored Algebra, subjects listed above, and C programming.

Management Experience

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• Began leadership experience as a swimming pool manager at age 18 Duties involved training and supervising lifeguards, emergency situation control, scheduling, public relations, and daily management issues.

• As a severe disabilities teacher, my primary responsibilities involved the management of a small team of professionals and paraprofessionals. I was frequently required to support and train staff, perform public relations work in sometimes extremely difficult situations, and maintain an example of stability and control when dealing with individuals who exhibited extreme behavioral challenges.

• In my role as a service course coordinator for IUPUI Computer Science Department, I gained extensive experience leading instructional teams, acting as an example instructor, pioneering and evangelizing an innovative curriculum, and fostering a culture of respect, integrity, and academic strength in an inviting, collegiate atmosphere.
• As the series editor for the Absolute Beginners series, I'm responsible for creating and maintaining a vision of high quality in a very competitive discipline. I spend most of my time on this job mentoring new authors to ensure their books achieve the standards of our series, as this level of quality will help them to sell more books (and earn more royalties).

Professional Activities

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• Lab Coordinator - Streaming Media Lab IUPUI Computer Science Dept. Develop staff, equipment, and technologies to enable state of the art instructional media development lab. Built CD-ROM and web-delivered versions of several courses for the CS department.
• Speaker - Syllabus 2000 Conference, Santa Clara CA. Described my work on SIMILE, a custom XML language for synchronized instructional media encoding and delivery.
• Ongoing Reviewer, various technology publishers. Reviewed manuscripts on various programming topics including Visual Basic, Advanced VB, Javascript, Java, Perl, and Virtual reality.
• Participated in development of IU Strategic Directions Initiative Grant - Service Course Revision for Departments of Computer and Information Science. Primary investigator of several initiatives in this project, including underlying STAIR problem-solving metaphor, project lead on first book, contributing other to Programming Concepts, Data Analysis, and Web Design texts.
• Member of the Indiana Business Modernization and Technology Software committee. Service on grant review committes, member-at large, presentation on teaching and the Internet
• Primary developer of Miracle, an algorithmic teaching language for absolute beginners. Member of original design team, author of the first working version of the language. Re-wrote in java, managed a re-write in Visual Basic.
• Project coordinator for development of Certificate in Applied Computer Science. Managed efforts to create a certification program combining elements of the N300 series into a cohesive unit. Certificate has enjoyed phenomenal growth, helping to double the enrollment in the department.
• Recipient of Curriculum Improvement Grant, School of Science, IUPUI. Working on use of streaming media, television, virtual reality, and traditional web resources as a combined tool to offer high quality course offerings through a variety of media.
• Streaming Media project leader. Creating Television, streaming media, and web-based versions of ACS core courses. Currently in production of N241, with N301, N331, and N341 to be archived and converted. Developing a streaming media lab to assist in the creation and distribution of streaming media as a classroom tool.
• Televised Course Production. Served as writer, producer and main speaker for a series of televised courses aired on local public television and cable access channels. Produced all certificate core courses in a televised format, then supervised translation of video to streaming media format for use over web and CD-ROM.

Selected Software Releases

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• IUPUI Virtual Tour - Interactive three dimensional model of the IUPUI campus written in Virtual Reality Modelling Language. Includes real-time navigation, special effects, and a guided tour. Done as a group project for the CSCI N355 virtual reality class I taught in Fall 2001.
• Chichen Itza Model - A virtual reality model of the Mayan site in Chichen Itza Mexico. Written in the Virtual Reality Modelling Language as a class project. Features multiple levels of detail. Done as a group project for the CSCI N355 virtual reality class I taught in Spring 2000.
• Water Computer - Library and demonstration software demonstrating with online virtual reality environment (VRML) how a computer can be built using only basic plumbing hardware and water. Implemented in Virtual Reality Modelling language.
• SlideShow - An instructional tool that allows the development of HTML-based slideshows. Used to demonstrate the construction of a server-based XML parser, and as a tool of CGI programming with perl. Most notes in online courses were constructed using this tool.
• SIMILE A major update of the slideshow project that added a synchronized media component and streamlines the production of synchronized streaming media presentations.
• Grade Machine - a simplistic but useful system for distributing grades over the web with reasonable security. Originally developed as an example of CGI programming, but adopted by most non-major courses and a few major courses as a grade distribution tool.
• Tester - An online exam creation, distribution, and grading tool. Utilizes client-side (Javascript and Dynamic HTML) technologies for simplified creation of exam materials using a custom variant of XML. Uses server-side technologies (perl and CGI) to parse the XML, generate HTML for the exams, generate answer keys and log files. Also has a server-side grading tool, which automatically grades student responses, and password protection. Used by most non-major CSCI courses.
• ABNIAC - Absolute Beginner's Numerical Integrator and Calculator. A virtual machine with an assembler-like language designed to teach absolute beginners how computers work. Released as freeware in 1996. Re-written in Java in 1997
• MIRACLE - A programming environment designed to teach basic programming skills semantically. Teaches students how to write basic algorithms, then implements the algorithms in a number of languages. Students can see a running version of their code immediately in javaScript without having to do any compiling or interpreting, or downloading any special software. Web - based version is the foundation of IUPUIs N201 course, and it is heavily used in Bloomington as the foundation of A106. Java and Visual Basic versions under development at IUPUI and Bloomington campus.

Courses Developed

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• CS100 - Redesigned course to give general problem - solving focus, comfort level with technology. Wrote notes for course in HTML: (http://klingon.iupucs.iupui.edu/~aharris/100ah.html)

• CS20X - Supervised development of common modules for CS201, 207, 208 handling common themes of all classes.

• CS201 - Re-designed programming component of course. Stronger element on problem solving, programming as an extension of applications work. Designed all assignments using Word Basic (Macro language built into Microsoft Word)

• CS207 - Chaired development team for restructuring of course. Stronger emphasis on statistical analysis, moved focus from SPSS on VAX to spreadsheets. Shifted concentration on syntax to problem - solving strategies.

• CS220 VB (renamed N311) - Designed a version of Problem Solving with Programming using Visual Basic. Notes are available at http://klingon.cs.iupui.edu/~aharris/220fall.html

• CS220 Web Authoring - Chaired design team for a version of Problem Solving course using Internet design tools. Emphasis on problem solving with introductions to HTML, Perl, CGI scripting, JavaScript, and Java. Notes for this course are available at http://klingon.cs.iupui.edu/~aharris/220html

• MMCC course A/B (renamed N100) - Chaired design team developing Courses A and B in IU system-wide curriculum effort. Acted as the primary author and editor of the textbook used in those courses. A web-based version of that text is available at http://klingon.cs.iupui.edu/~aharris/mmcc/stair.html

• MMCC course C (renamed N201) - This course was based on my earlier work in 201. I designed the prototype of MIRACLE used in the pilot sections of the course, taught one of the pilot sections, acted as a contributing author to the text. Managing ongoing improvements in the Miracle environment.

• MMCC Course D (renamed N207) - This course was based on our earlier work with 207. I was involved in writing and testing new materials for teaching data analysis concepts using spreadsheets to users with little previous experience. I was a contributing author in the final release of the book. I wrote two complete chapters and provided many of the examples.

• CS220 Problem Solving with Java (renamed N345) - Developed the course from the ground up, as few appropriate textbooks were yet available. Wrote preliminary text (currently being submitted for publication) Special emphasis on Applet / GUI programming.

• CS220 Advanced Visual Basic (renamed N335) - Course focuses on integration of databases into VB applications, object oriented programming in Windows environment, use of the Windows API, best practices in VB programming, VB and the Internet, using variations of VB including VBA and VBScript, generating activeX controls, and other advanced topics of interest to more advanced Visual Basic programmers.

• CSCI N100 Televised Developed a Television and web - deliverable version of CSCI N100. Taped lectures in a television studio, archived them in streaming media format, managed development of online ancillary materials, examples, notes. Created course management tools such as an asynchronous chat, quiz and test management software.

• CSCI N241 Web Design Split the older Web Authoring course into two seperate courses. N241 incorporates features of the MMCC core curriculum, with an emphasis on web and internet topics, internet protocols, unix and text editors. The second half of the course includes strong treatment of HTML, including frames, stylesheets, and image maps, all done without use of GUI editors.

• CSCI N241 Web Design (televised) Headed development of Television / streaming media / internet delivered variant of N241. Served as co-executive producer of televised series, as well as primary on-screen instructor and project leader.

• CSCI N341 Web Programming All the programming concepts of the older Web Authoring course were moved into this class. The course focuses on client side programming in the first half, with javascript and dynamic HTML concepts. During the second half, we cover server-side programming, with perl and CGI programming. I wrote original text material for the course, currently being custom-published and modified for television and streaming web - based distribution.

• CSCI N355 Virtual Reality This course covers concepts of 3-dimensional visualization primarily through use of Virtual Reality Modelling language, a language that allows distribution of virtual worlds through the world-wide-web. Students use a text editor to create and modify worlds incorporating texture mapping, transformations in three dimensions, animation, and incorporating scripts. As no textbooks currently exist on the topic, I wrote my own. The text is available entirely on line, and incorporates a number of interactive features, which encourage the student to experiment with the environment as they read or hear about it.

Teaching Recognition

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• TERA 1996/1997 Teaching Excellence Recognition Award, presented by the IUPUI School of Science

• Outstanding Associate Faculty award, 1997/1998, awarded by IUPUI School of Science

• TERA 1998/1999 Teaching Excellence Recognition Award, Second award of TERA by IUPUI school of science