“Call me Ishmael.”  No, on second thought, please don’t.  Although my name is very similar to the main character of Moby Dick, my name is actually Ismael (no “h”), or Izzy for short.

Education has been a passion of mine for a very long time, although it took me an equally long amount of time to realize it.  I have held various positions in education; a summary of my positions can be found on my resume page.

Before working in education, I held various technical roles, having worked as a Software Engineer, Network Engineer, and Technical Support in a call center.  And in May 2015, I graduated with my Master’s of Science degree in Computer Science from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).

In January of 2015, I shifted back into education after several years as a Software Engineer.  I’m passionate about education.  My philosophy is to improve educational outcomes using any means at my disposal.  In my case, that means using my technical experience to bring lessons to life, and make the learning experience more interactive for students.

As a first-generation college graduate, I am intimately familiar with the risks, rewards, and effort associated with pursuing higher education for other first-generation students like me.  This is what pushes me to do better for instructors and students every day.

I have fully embraced instructional design as a career. I have taught both face-to-face and online courses, presented at regional conferences, and earned professional certifications from organizations such as Quality Matters, which certifies the course design quality of online courses.

Although my career trajectory seems haphazard at times, the one consistent theme has always been a focus on customer service, and most recently, finding the best way to serve K-12 and higher education students through a quality educational experience.

I started this blog as a way to archive and comment on all the education-related articles and technologies I run into on a daily basis.

To learn more about my career path, check out Even More About Me.