Mark Springston

Mark Springston received his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. He has 20 plus years experience teaching technical laboratory courses in secondary and higher education. During his doctoral studies, he instructed several undergraduate/graduate level laboratory-based technical courses, including Graphic Communications, Communication Systems, Construction Systems, Production Systems, and Manufacturing Systems. It is through teaching these courses that Mark further refined his problem-based approach to teaching. He views team-based learning as an important pedagogy for contextual learning in technology education. For his dissertation topic of teamwork and technological problem solving, he conducted an experiment with 294 (99 teams) first-year college engineering students. His research interests include technological problem solving, design in the context of student teams, and individual and collaborative communication learning tools.

 Before pursuing doctoral studies, Mark was a technology teacher at Brooke Point High School in Stafford VA, where he was selected twice as teacher of the quarter and served as a Technology Student Association advisor. He was also a Technology Lead Teacher instructing continuing education courses, such as Desktop Publishing, Spreadsheets, and Computer Basics.

 Mark is currently in his 21st year at SUNY Oswego, where he instructs Communication and Multimedia Systems (TEL 363), Teaching Methods for Technology Education (TED 306), and Professional Topics in Technology Education (TED 414). For the Teaching Methods course, he started a program, Youth Technology Day, where teacher preparation students gained authentic experience planning and delivering technological activities to guest middle and high school students. Mark also serves as graduate faculty for his department, instructing Assessment in - (TED 534), Digital Multimedia for - (TED 583), Introduction to Research for - (TED 536), and Advanced Instructional Strategies in - (TED 532): Technology Education. For his department, Mark has co-chaired the Technology Fall Conference, and served as conference program chair and conference website coordinator for 8 years. He currently serves as the printing coordinator for the Technology Fall Conference (fallconference.com).

Mark has served on several committees on the Oswego campus, including chairing the Information Technology Council (ITC) for six years, chairing the SOE Peer Review Committee for two years, SUNY Oswego Conference on Instructional Technology Planning Committee, GE21 Task Force, Scientific and Quantitative Literacy Review Committee, Student Computing Access Program (SCAP) Committee, and Technology Innovation Project (TIP) Committee. As ITC chair, he authored the instructions and conducted the feedback survey for the electronic Discretionary Salary Increase pilot, and co-authored the Student Photo Usage Policy. On the national/international level, he served on the Research and Scholarship Committee for the Council on Technology & Engineering Teacher Education, and chaired the International Technology And Engineering Educators Association Task Force: Articulation of Key Initiatives. As the Competitive Events Coordinator for the Technology and Engineering Education Collegiate Association, he served as editor and recreated the format for the competitive events manual.

Mark has made approximately 50 professional presentations and workshops at different conferences. Mark’s technical area is multimedia, and he has created several multimedia instructional products, multimedia promotional materials, and web sites. He has been awarded approximately 110,000 dollars in SUNY SCAP and TIP grants. In addition, since coming to Oswego, he has been involved in five projects involving data collection and analysis. He is the author for the Data Analysis Learning Object on the T2I2 NSF Grant. Mark has applied for and received 160,000 dollars in funding and grants to improve the offerings and impact for families and technology education majors participating in Oswego KidsTech (oswegokidstech.org) over the past 6 years. He is the founder of Oswego KidsTech, which has been in existence for 14 years. Oswego KidsTech has received the outstanding education program award through student association two times.

Mark served as co advisor for the Oswego Technology Student Association (OTSA) for 13 years. Mark initiated the STEM 4 Kids K-3 and Young Inventors 4-6 programs, so OTSA members and students enrolled in Teaching Methods for Technology Education (TED 306) would gain valuable teaching experience working with community children. He has been the coordinator and contest guideline author of the Collegiate Communication Contest at the TEECA Eastern Regional Conference for 11 years. He was also the web creator for the conference for five years.

Classes taught

Undergraduate

• TED 306 - Teaching Methods for Technology Education
• TED 316 - Field Experience 3 Tech Ed Practicum
• TED 414 - Professional Topics & Problems
• TEL 363 - Communication/Multimedia Systems
• TEL 130 - Computing Technology and Information Systems

Graduate

• TED 532 - Advanced Instructional Methodologies for Technology Education
• TED 534 - Assessment in Technology Education
• TED 536 - Introduction to Research for Technology Education
• TED 583 - Digital Multimedia for Technology Teachers