About

I am currently the Dean of the Zucker Family School of Education and also the Zucker Chair of Entrepreneurial Education Leadership at The Citadel. Before joining The Citadel, I was the Taft Distinguished Professor of Science Education at East Carolina University, a full professor at George Mason University, and an assistant and associate professor of Science Education at North Carolina State University.

Early in my career, my research focused on distance learning and the affect of instructional technology on science learning for teachers and students in rural and underserved populations. Although there is considerable research on distance learning, I focused on the untapped analyses of learning science through various distance delivery strategies. My research has evolved from my dissertation on comparing three different distance delivery strategies on science teacher professional development to studying the impact of video games, and the design and development of Serious Educational Games (a term I created in my 2008 book) as a teaching and learning tool and as a vehicle for synchronous online instruction.

Understanding the popularity of online, multiuser video games, I began to use my past programming knowledge to build a virtual environment that became the platform for my research agenda that grew from exploring distance learning to Serious Educational Games. Through two separate internally funded grants, I designed and created a synchronous, online 3D virtual environment for distance learning courses offered at North Carolina State. Those internal grants cascaded into a career, thus far, where I have secured over $19 million dollars as principal or co-principal investigator to study Serious Educational Games deployed through computer, virtual reality, augmented reality, and spatial computing.

In 2008, I was honored with three awards for my extension work teaching K-12 teachers and students video game design for science and mathematics learning. The awards were progressive from the College of Education Outstanding Extension Service Award, to the induction into the NC State University Academy of Outstanding Faculty Engaged in Extension to the Distinguished Alumni Engaged in Extension and Outreach award. In both 2006 and 2010 I was honored, with my colleagues as co-writers, with the National Technology Leadership Initiative award. With over 4500 entries in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2015 I was also honored as a Nifty Fifty speaker for the United States Science and Engineering Festival.

In 2022 I was honored with the Association of Science Teacher Education National Mentor of the Year award. In 2023 I was awarded best research paper at the Eurasia EduCon. I was co-author on the 2024 best paper at the Association of Science Teacher Education conference. The success of the internally funded grants thrusted a quest for external funding to continue supporting my research on gaming technology.