NMC Fellows Award

Doug Engelbart, Ph.D.

NMC Fellow Awarded June 2009 at NMC Summer Conference

Doug Engelbart is best known for inventing the computer mouse, and is a pioneer of human-computer interaction, including GUIs, hypertext, and groupware, as well as strategic organizing principles for continuous improvement and innovation.

Engelbart received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Oregon State University in 1948, an M.S. degree from UC Berkeley in 1953, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from UC Berkeley in 1955.

As a World War II radio technician based in the Philippines, Engelbart was inspired by Vannevar Bush’s article As We May Think. After the war, he was moved to carve out a career that would make a significant difference to humanity and the planet. He envisioned outfitting the people working on solutions to important problems with interactive computers, enabling them to fly through their information spaces to optimize their collective problem-solving capabilities.

Following his inspiration, Engelbart quit his comfortable job as an engineer at NASA, and studied at UC Berkeley, where he earned a PhD in 1955. Engelbart was the primary force behind the design of the Stanford Research Institute ’s On-Line System, or NLS. Throughout the 1960s and ’70s he and his team at the Augmentation Research Center developed human-computer interface elements such as the mouse, multiple windows, hypermedia, online publishing, online communities, groupware, and the graphical user interface. He developed many of his user interface ideas before 1968, long before the personal computer revolution, captured for posterity in what is now known as The Mother of All Demos.

Kristina Woolsey, Ph.D.

NMC Fellow Awarded June 2007 at NMC Summer Conference

Over her remarkable career, Kristina Woolsey has taken her background in Cognitive Science and extended it into the design domain.  As a postdoctoral fellow in architecture, she explored how movies could show places.  As an Assistant Professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz she explored geographic information systems, working on the Aspen Movie Map as a visiting faculty member at MIT.  She extended her leadership in the intersection of design and cognition as Director of the Atari Research Lab, and then as co-Founder and Director of the Apple Computer Multimedia Lab and a founding member of the Apple Human Interface Group .  She was named a Distinguished Scientist, Apple Computer, in acknowledgement of her pioneering work in multimedia in education.

She has served in a myriad of roles, including executive producer of a range of critically acclaimed multimedia titles, including Life Story, the Visual Almanac , and Voices of the Thirties.  Woolsey is author of many articles, chapters, and books, including VizAbility, from Ceengage Publishers, which she coauthored with Scott Kim and Gayle Curtis.   She served as co-editor with Sueann Ambron on Interactive Multimedia and Learning with Interactive Multimedia, both from Microsoft Press.

Carl Berger, PhD.

NMC Fellow Awarded June 2006 at NMC Summer Conference

Carl is Professor and Dean Emeritus at the University of Michigan, School of Education.

Carl was the Director of Advanced Academic Technologies in the Collaboratory for Advanced Research and Academic Technologies (CARAT) in the Provost's Office since its inception in 1995 through 2005. Prior to that he was a professor at the University for over 33 years and associate dean and dean from 1979 through 1988.

Research projects include design and evaluation on the CoLabNet Project, CARAT/Rackham fellowship evaluation. He was the major designer and analyst of the Surveys of Information Technology Use by Faculty and Students at the University for over 20 years. In addition to work on evaluation and assessment of student and faculty use of technology, he works on displaying research data in colorful graphic and network forms for ease of analysis and decision making.

Professional activities include editor at large of Academic Intersections, member of the advisory board of MERLOT, former Chairman of the Board of IMS Global Learning Consortium, from its inception in 1995 to 2004, member of the board of directors of the New Media Centers from 1994 to 1998 and member of EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative and the National Association for Research in Science Teaching .

Ted Kahn, Ph.D.

NMC Fellow Awarded June 2003 at NMC Summer Conference

Dr. Ted M. Kahn is the CEO and co-founder (with his wife, Frona) of DesignWorlds for Learning, Inc.   and DesignWorlds for College & Careers. Ted has been a pioneer in co-developing digital media technologies and innovative collaborative learning projects using computers, digital media and telecommunications for nearly 40 years. His work has included the design of several award-winning educational multimedia products and projects, the support and connection of global educational innovators, and the development and promotion of online social networks to support creative lifelong learning communities bridging K-12 schools, higher education, homes, workplaces and museums.  

Ted has been a Fellow at the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, The George Lucas Educational Foundation, and the Center for Science, Technology & Society at Santa Clara University, and he is also a Media X Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Stanford. He has been affiliated with several high tech companies, advanced research centers, and non-profits, including: Lawrence Hall of Science (Berkeley), the Centre for Educational Technology (Israel), Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Atari (where he funded the Atari Institute for Educational Action Research), the Children’s Discovery Museum, Picodyne, Digital F/X,  the Institute for Research on Learning (IRL) and Krause Center for Innovation at Foothill College . Ted has also been a grantee or consultant with Apple, Microsoft, the National Academy of Science, NSF, U.S. Dept. of Education, UNESCO/UNDP, the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), and the Hewlett Foundation.