About

GCB Resumé

Selected Projects

George C Brackett
Professional Experience
	George Brackett Associates, Boston MA
1981-	PRINCIPAL. Educational software design, development and consulting.
	Codman Academy Charter Public School, Dorchester MA
2000-2012	CO-FOUNDER, EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR, TRUSTEE, CONSULTANT.Helping to launch an innovative inner-city charter public high school, and to support its continuing operation and development.
	Codman Square Health Center, Dorchester MA
2000-2001	DIRECTOR OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY. Design, development and delivery of educational programs in technical skills, health and community action using new technologies.
	Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge MA
1991-2000 1987-88	LECTURER ON EDUCATION & DIRECTOR, TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION PROGRAM (1995-1999). Teaching of courses in educational software and webware design and development.
	University of Mid-America, Lincoln NE
1979-1981 1976-1978	SENIOR DESIGNER. INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER & PROJECT MANAGER. Design, production and project management in educational development projects produccing college-level course materials for distance-learning adults, using print, audio tape, broadcast television and radio, and interactive videodisc.
	University of California, Berkeley CA
1970-76	LECTURER, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE & SENIOR RESEARCH PHYSICIST. Teaching of introductory physics (Department of Physics); research and development in programmed instructgion and self-paced, peer-tutored management systems for introductory college physics (Group in Science and Mathematics Education, SESAME).
Education
1970	Ph.D. in Physics, University of California, Berkeley (Far Infrared Spectroscopy)
1965	B.S. in Physics with Honor, California Institute of Technology
Honors & Awards
1999	AWARD from LESLEY COLLEGE: for contributions and many years of dedication to its Technology in Education Program 1979-1999
1994	MEDIA & METHODS AWARDS PORTFOLIO: Geography Search DISTRICTS' CHOICE AWARD: Geography Search. Curriculum Administrator
1992	BEST SCHOOL PRODUCTIVITY/CREATIVITY PROGRAM: Bank Street Writer for the Macintosh. Software Publisher's Association
1990	SEVEN TOP PROGRAMS: Hyperscreen. Technology & Learning BOSTON COMPUTER SOCIETY ADAPTIVE TECHNOLOGY AWARD: Hyperscreen.
1989	AWARD OF EXCELLENCE: Slide Shop. Classroom Computer Learning (CCL) AWARD OF EXCELLENCE: Super Story Tree. CCL
1986	TEN BEST PROGRAMS: Bank Street StoryBook. CCL BEST EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM: Bank Street StoryBook. Computer Entertainer
1985	EIGHT BEST PROGRAMS: Story Tree. CCL SHOWCASE AWARD: Story Tree. Consumer Electronics Show (CES) SHOWCASE AWARD: Bank Street StoryBook. CES SHOWCASE AWARD: Welcome Aboard. CES
1980	OHIO STATE AWARD: Japan, the Changing Tradition
1977	AWARD OF EXCELLENCE: Study Guide for Japan: The Living Tradition. National Association of Educational Broadcasters.
1966	WOODROW WILSON FELLOW.

Selected Work
Citizenship Point System 2005	DESIGNER/PROGRAMMER An online system allowing teachers to record both positive and disruptive behavior, and to make that information available to other teachers, students, and parents.
Leadership & The New Technologies (LNT) Website 1997 (EDC)	DESIGNER/DEVELOPER A website created to support a summer institute on new technologies for school policy makers. See LNT 1999 for a more recent site based on the orginal design. (Educational Development Center, EDC)
Graph Action Plus 1996 (TSP)	CO-DESIGNER/PROGRAMMER A CD-ROM with three programs on the mathematics of motion for middle-school (includes Graph Action, below). As exploratory environment for relating kinestehetic experiences of motion, animated and digitized video images of miton, textual descriptions of motion, and qualitative distance-time graphs. (Tom Snyder Productions, TSP)
Graph Action 1998 (TSP)	CO-DESIGNER/PROGRAMMER First of three programs on the mathematics of motion for middle-school. Students move a mouse to record a motion graph, and use playback to relate their kinesthetic experiences to qualitative graphs, stories and animation describing the motion.
Chance Encounters 1995 (C)	CO-DESIGNER/PROGRAMMER One of a series of exploratory laboratories in middle-school mathematics, to accompany the MathScape NSF-supported curriculum developed by EDC, which has made it also available in free download or web versions. (Creative Publications, C)
What If Britain Falls? 1994 (FDR)	DESIGNER/DEVELOPER An interactive history simulation for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (FDR) in Hyde Park New York. The visitor takes FDR's place behind his desk in June, 1940, considering actual documents and advisor briefings before deciding whether to aid England; alternate histories are the result.
Geography Search 1993 (TSP)	CO-DESIGNER/PROGRAMMER. A simulation of voyages of discovery, engaging groups of middle-school students in the navigation and decision-making needed to discover a New World.
Bank Street Writer for the Mac 1991-2 (S)	CO-DESIGNER/PROGRAMMER. A school-oriented Macintosh world processor, descended from but enhanced beyond earlier Writers, with reference tools, hypertext, sound, and page layout. (Scholastic, Inc. S)
HyperScreen 1990 (S)	DESIGNER/PROGRAMMER. An Apple ][ hypermedia tool for creating stacks of images interconnected by on-screen buttons, with special-effect transitions, sound, pop-up text branching, speech generation, and videodisc control.
Super Story Tree 1989 (S)	DESIGNER/PROGRAMMER. An Apple ][ tool for writing interactive fiction and non-fiction, including text, graphics, sound, and special-effect transitions.
Slide Shop 1988 (S)	DESIGNER/PROGRAMMER. An Apple ][ tool for creating and displaying slide shows on computers and videotape, using sophisticated graphics, special-effect transitions, and sound.
Story Tree 1983 (S)	DESIGNER/PROGRAMMER. A story processor for writing interactive text -- fiction, exposition, poetry -- which branches according to the reader's choice or chance events.
Child Abuse Prevention 1981 (UMA)	DESIGNER/WRITER/SCRIPT EDITOR. TGhree half-hour film dramas and associated print materials, developed for the National Institutes of Health. (University of Mid-America, UMA)
Work Redesign and Listening for Understanding 1981 (UMA)	DESIGNER/WRITER. Two half-hour films and associated film guides for college instruction and corporate training. The first film is a documentary, the second a drama with commentary by Dr. Carl Rogers.
Japan: The Changing Tradition 1978 (UMA)	DESIGNER/WRITER/PROJECT MANAGER. Sixteen half-hour documentary films and study guides forming a course on the modern history and contemporary culture of Japan. Former Ambassador Edwin O. Reischauer was senior advisor.
Selected Clients
Broderbund Software, Education Development Center, Inc., Henson Associates, Inc., Learningways, Inc., New York Botanical Garden, WGBH, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library, Center for Applied Special Technology, Houghton Mifflin Company, Addison Wesley, Tom Snyder Productions, Boston Center for Collaborative Education.

I have completed quite a few projects in my 40 years or so as a designer and developer of educational software and web environments. Here are a few of the most recent. For additional projects, see my Resumé.

Citizenship Status Point System

A tool for behavior management in schools. Teachers use the Status client (see figure) to enter student behaviors as 'infractions' or 'kudos' -- behavior that disrupts or enhances the learning environment of the school, each with a negative or positive point value indicating severity. This data is uploaded to a MySQL database, allowing the review of individual student cumulative records in the Status client (as shown) as well as a total behavioral 'score' for each student. Student scores are posted on the school intranet website, where they are available to students, families and administration staff. Detailed student records, including graphs of point scores over time, are available to teachers; a companion student program provides a student access to his/her own data.

Roles:
Original concept: the faculty of Codman Academy Charter Public School
Design and programming (client and web reporting module): George C Brackett
In collaboration with: Codman Academy Charter Public School
Installation: Codman Academy Charter Public School (2005-)

PhpWebSite Modules

A set of four open-source modules enhancing the content management system PhpWebSite , developed by Appalachian State University.

staffman (for listing staff bios and pictures -- see figure at left),
jobman (for listing available positions),
jobwantedman (for listing positions sought), and
uplink (for uploading files through a simple interface)

Roles:
Design and programming: George C Brackett
In collaboration with: PhpWebSite Community Development Project
Published: on Sourceforge (2003-2005)

Graph Action Plus

A CD-ROM containing three programs helping middle-school children explore the mathematics of motion: Graph Action, Action Analyzer (pictured here), and Multi-Viewer. In Action Analyzer, students track objects in QuickTime movies to create graphs of their vertical or horizontal motion, which can then be played back synchronously with the video as the measured points are displayed for comparison. Multi-Viewer permits the simultaneous comparison and annotation of up to four movies and distance-time graphs.

Roles:
Design: George Brackett, Laura Albert & Glenn Kleiman
Graphics: Laura Albert
Programming: George Brackett & David Neill Juitt
In Collaboration with: Education Development Center
Publisher: Tom Snyder Productions, Inc. (1995)

Graph Action

First of three programs on the mathematics of motion for middle-school. Students move a mouse to record or sketch a motion graph, and use playback to relate their kinesthetic experiences to qualitative distance-time graphs, stories, and animations describing the motion. .

Roles:
Design: George Brackett, Laura Albert & Glenn Kleiman
Graphics: Laura Albert
Programming: George Brackett
In Collaboration with: Education Development Center
Publisher: Tom Snyder Productions, Inc. (1996)

Chance Encounters

A laboratory for performing a variety of probability experiments with games and game pieces (e.g., coins, number cubes), extending prior experiences with real objects to very large numbers of trials, and displaying the results in several different representations for comparison with theoretical expectations. One of a series of exploratory laboratories in middle-school mathematics, to accompany an NSF-supported curriculum developed by Education Development Center, Inc..

Roles:
Design: George C Brackett, Amy Brodesky & Glenn Kleiman
Graphics: George Brackett
Programming: George Brackett
In Collaboration with: Education Development Center
Publisher: Creative Publications, Inc. (1996)

What If Britain Falls?

An interactive history simulation for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York. The visitor takes FDR's place behind his desk in June, 1940, considering actual documents (e.g., a telegram from Joseph Kennedy in London, a note from Winston Churchill) and an advisor briefing (the appointment-book entry is pictured) before deciding whether to send material aid to England. Depending on the visitor's choices, alternate histories, based on FDR's own thinking, are played out..

Roles:
Design: George C Brackett
In Collaboration with: The Interactive Factory, Ark Studios
Installation: Franklin D Roosevelt Library (1994)

Geography Search

A simulation of voyages of discovery, engaging up to six crews of middle-school students in the navigation and decision-making needed to discover a New World. Each crew-member is an expert in some knowledge essential to success; all must work together to return safely from the rumored City of Gold.

Roles:
Design: George C Brackett (adapting an original concept by Tom Snyder)
Programming: George C Brackett & Sean Nolan
Publisher: Tom Snyder Productions, Inc. (1993)