about
I'm a programmer/analyst at Penn State University, currently working as a member of the Educational Technology team for the World Campus.
We work directly with Instructional Designers to support and maintain online courses. My role is to research various technologies and to facilitate best practices among our team.
My primary interest is in building tools that help people work more efficiently. Achieving this goal requires listening, planning and
iterating in relatively short development cycles. Communication and organization are also critical to this process.
My skills, training and experience are documented on this site.
Contact me at jdeluca at psu dot edu.
technology
My unique perspective has been honed through experience in a wide range of organizations — including corporate, non-profit and higher education — during the course of my career.
As a member of a corporate IT department, I worked in a fast-paced, demanding environment that served many large companies throughout the country. Working in higher education has
given me the opportunity to keep my skills current and work with a wider range of technologies and top professionals while staying aware of emerging trends.
Specifically, I've served as lead web developer, database programmer, software trainer and instructional technologist.
More detail on technology skills and experience
education
I took my B.S. degree "a few" years ago and that served as a good lesson in how to learn. After several years of working and eventually running a small business,
I returned to school for some post-baccalaureate and graduate work to pursue other interests.
After that, about 13 years ago, I used skills I had learned along the way to begin working in information technology.
During that time, I got technology training any way could. I drove 200 miles round-trip one night a week for an academic year to get network training.
I convinced my employers to send me to training for web development and turned around and shared my new found skills with others. I got books, worked through tutorials, asked questions of anybody and every body who was willing to answer.
I sought out and accepted projects that would enable me to learn new skills. I took jobs not based on the salary, but on the opportunity to learn and work with knowledgeable people.
Eventually, I landed a full-time position in an MIS department that gave me the opportunity I set out to gain.
Getting the degree is great. Learning how to learn is better. Commitment to lifelong learning is essential.
More detail on formal training
leadership
From running a small business very early in my career to supervising interns in my current position, my experience as a leader is extensive and varied.
supervisor
As Instruction Coordinator of a residential environmental education center, I supervised the professional education staff, the
interns and the summer staff. Interns came to us from universities throughout the country and we had a regular flow of international interns
from countries including France, Germany and Ghana. Supervsion included training, advising, scheduling and providing both formal and informal evaluations.
trainer
As a computer trainer, I presented programs ranging from week-long courses for practicing teachers on using the internet in the classroom
to short sessions focused on learning a specific desktop application. My audiences ranged from aspiring programmers to office workers and from seniors
who had never used a computer to kindergarteners who had never known life without computers.
group leader
Perhaps most unique was my experience of leading groups of young people on wilderness expeditions in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of
northern Minnesota. The week-long trips - designed to build outdoor skills and teach wilderness ethics - provided me with an on-the-job crash
course in group dynamics. Bringing that team together during the week was very challenging and most rewarding.
samples
Much of the work I do sits behind password-protected sites as it is used for purposes internal to our team.
Though some sites from my previous position are still available, it has been too long since I worked on those sites to include them here.
Below are a couple of sites I've worked on recently.
Web Learning @ Penn State - A site created to support online learning at Penn State, built using the Plone Content Management System (v3.2.2).
Institute of Global Prescience - A site I built for on-going collaboration between IST students and others interested in this project.
College of IST Web Site - Participated in the re-design of this site and wrote much of the CSS.
Since I'm not a designer, the work I do isn't really "visible" in a web site, but can only really be seen by examining the source code in subversion repositories.
One of those projects can be found here:
https://weblion.psu.edu/svn/weblion/collegeOfIst/RosterSynch/trunk
If you would like to dig through any more of this minutiae, feel free to contact me.
other activities
These have varied over the years, but include writing and photography for publication, music,
public radio, serving as a volunteer for the Acoustic Brew (a non-profit organization dedicated to providing a venue for live music),
travel, books, gardening, biking, paddling, running and more.
More detail other activities