The Miller Institute
for Learning with Technology
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The Miller Institute
for Learning with Technology
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Prior to founding the Institute, Dr. Miller had served as Lab Director for Learning and Tools at Apple Computer, reporting to the Vice President of Apple’s Advanced Technology Group [ATG], where he spent almost a decade heading up educational technology investigations. Apple programs under his direction at various times included: Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow [ACOT]; Apple Global Education [AGE]; Visualization and Simulation; Business Learning and Performance Support; and Multimedia Authoring Tools. Responsibilities at various times included oversight of over three dozen employees, including Apple Distinguished Scientists and numerous engineers with advanced degrees, with budget responsibility in excess of $6M.
Dr. Miller’s other major corporate experience includes Texas Instruments, Inc., Central Research Labs, where Miller established its widely recognized Machine Intelligence research program, emphasizing educational applications, expert systems, natural language processing. Miller also co-founded Computer*Thought Corporation (Dallas, TX), a high-tech startup backed by venture capital financing - over $5M equity financing raised during the first three years of operation - where Miller led the technical design of the Ada*Tutor product, an advanced instructional system used to retrain software engineers to use the Ada programming language, as mandated by the U.S. Department of Defense for projects such as Space Station.
Dr. Miller’s teaching experience includes Adjunct Faculty at the University of Texas and Southern Methodist University (Introduction to Artificial Intelligence; Survey of Knowledge Engineering; Design and Implementation of Programming Languages; Compilers, Assemblers, and Operating Systems; Software Engineering Using Ada; Discrete Structures). Miller has supervised successful M.S. and Ph.D candidates. While at MIT he served as both Research Assistant and Teaching Assistant in the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Artificial Intelligence and LOGO Laboratories. Miller has also taught high school mathematics as a guest instructor, and Filemaker Pro and other topics from time to time at Community Colleges and County Offices of Education.
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Byron Davies, Ph.D. joined The Miller Institute in 2009 as Branch Manager, Arizona Operations, sharing his lifetime of experience in information technology with deep interest and involvement in K-12 education. Dr. Davies first became involved with learning technology as a board member for the Arizona Learning Technology Partnership (now known as eSATS, eLearning Systems for Arizona Teachers and Students). For six years he used learning technology platforms to teach IT to healthcare professionals at the Arizona School of Health Sciences.
In addition to work with The Miller Institute, Byron also teaches part-time at a charter high school, where since 2007, Dr. Davies has helped this innovative Arizona charter school craft their business, technology, and growth strategy. Additionally, he remains active as the Chair and Executive Director of AHITA, a non-profit dedicated to accelerating the adoption of electronic health records in small and medium medical practices.
Mr. Van Sickle joined The Miller Institute as Branch Manager of the Colorado operations in 2006. Mr. Van Sickle has completed 35 years in public education. During those years he has been involved in many educational programs and areas. He was instrumental in bringing technology to the Aztec school district in the early 1980’s and has been involved with instructional technology and various programs tied to it for more than 25 years.
In addition to work with The Miller Institute, Richard works with dozens of schools / districts in Colorado, facilitating their E-Rate applications, and serves as an E-Rate trainer for school districts in Colorado.
Andree joined The Miller Institute in 2008, when she moved to California with her family, from New York. There she worked with school districts and universities on Student Information Systems (notably PowerSchool), teacher professional development, and technology management. She ran her own consulting firm, Miller Educational Data Services, and has a great deal of relevant experience; most recently, she worked as a PowerSchool implementation trainer for Pearson.
Andree holds a B.S. in Computer Science from City College of New York and an MS. Ed. in Educational Administration and Policy Studies from Hofstra University. She belongs to the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD), Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and the Help Desk Institute (HDI). She also holds various credentials and certifications including: Pearson PowerSchool IPT Trainer; Langevin Training Instructional Designer; Novell Network Administrator; and Brainbench Excel Fundamentals. Andree’s background and contributions are significant assets of great benefit to our clients.
In her other role, as President /Owner of They Tell Me, Ms. Miller provides web-based customer satisfaction surveys to her clients. They Tell Me offers a convenient means for gathering actionable information to enhance customer satisfaction and increase revenue. This background has been invaluable to learningtech.org in the design of information-gathering survey materials for E-Rate clients. Eileen’s combination of technical expertise with an M.B.A. provides a solid foundation for work on E-Rate, which requires both technical understanding of the products and services sought, solid project-management capabilities, and appreciation of market forces and trends.
Loren Parkhurst has been working with Miller Institute for Learning with Technology on E-Rate projects since 2006. Mr. Parkhurst’s contributions to the organization include technical writing of Technology Plans, conducting of bid analysis, data analysis and network design. His background includes: Military service in the Army Security Agency, semiconductor design, testing and manufacturing, computer programming, and Local Area Network design, installation and service. Before joining the Institute, Loren was President/Owner of MicroLAN Consultants, where he worked with such clients as International Video Network, Cellular Phone Distributors, and The Oakland Raiders' Oakland Football Marketing Association. Loren provides wide-ranging understanding of technology infrastructure and telecommunications and, as our leading Windows expert, "tries his best to keep our Mac experts from drinking too much of the Cupertino Kool Aid."
Anne Petrie, MBA, Consultant, is a contributor to Learningtech's E-Rate and Technology Plan team. Her primary efforts for Learningtech E-Rate clients include assistance with E-Rate workflow processes, client document archiving, and quality assurance efforts to insure E-Rate clients are fully compliant with E-Rate requirements. Anne’s prior experience with governmental program operations and compliance includes health plan consulting for Medicare Advantage plans in the areas of enrollment, claims operations, provider network management, strategy and business processes, and systems configuration to support claims payment. She has broad expertise in health plan operations, product management, provider contracting and education, and Medicare regulatory compliance. Before joining Learningtech in a consulting capacity, Anne served in senior roles with Ingenix / Medicode, Pacificare, United Healthcare and FHP International.
Rob Olague has been working in the technology field since 1999, starting his career with Learningtech. He is a certified Apple Helpdesk Specialist (Tech ID: USA05E8W). For the past several years he has also worked in Hollywood at top post-production companies such as Trailer Park, Art Machine, 1K Studios, and Smartworks Collective, specializing in support for print design and video production departments, as well as managing infrastructure for Exchange, backup solutions and enterprise-level systems. A small-business systems expert, he has also worked with Public Relations experts such as Pollack PR and in Web 2.0 publishing as the permanent IT manager of TotalBeauty.com to meet the dynamic and changing needs of growing organizations.
Tom Wilkerson has been with The Miller Institute since 2001. Tom is a first-rate network administrator and desktop technician. Tom holds an Apple Certification on Mac OS X v10.4. Tom has probably cloned more Macintoshes in K-12 schools in the Bay area than any other single individual. His experience prior to joining included extensive experience in customer support roles relating to technology. Through this experience, Tom has become a patient teacher and excellent troubleshooter. His hobbies include automotive customization and audio engineering; Tom is an expert on Pro Tools, yet still enjoys getting children started with Garage Band. He also has considerable experience teaching computer troubleshooting skills to middle school students through our summer CTO workshops. Tom also plays a major role in providing technical support for our hosting clients.
Adam Vickers first joined Learningtech in 2001. His talents include CGI web programming, UNIX system administration, email, web, dns and database server configuration and administration, both software and hardware. Adam is fluent in PERL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, UNIX Shell and has dabbled in C, C++, PHP and Java. He even does Windows. Adam started his career in technology as a technician for a public elementary school, maintaining computer systems, running web and email servers, designing and maintaining the school web site, providing training to staff and faculty as well as working with students in the school's computer lab and after-school program. He has worked as a web developer and web consultant. Adam is the proud father of two beautiful children.
Chris Miller has been with The Miller Institute since 2001, when he merged his own successful computer consulting proprietorship with the Institute, to the enrichment of both organizations. An expert on Macintosh Server installation and configuration, Chris is Apple-certified and has been working on Macs since childhood. Chris is not afraid of the Unix command line and has written more than a few Java and C programs. He teaches robotics including C programming to middle school students at our summer workshops. Chris has set up countless X-Serves in K-12 schools throughout the Bay Area, not to mention a few in the L.A. area. When not sitting at an X-Serve's keyboard, Chris is playing keyboards professionally at local jazz/funk/rock venues.
Greg founded Tenadar Software at age 10, selling shareware made by kids, for kids, over the Internet. He also worked for Claris Corporation at age 12, evaluating children's software titles, offering competitive analyses and marketing recommendations. Greg has already had his "fifteen minutes of fame," with television and print media covering his youthful entrepreneurship, world-wide, as he presented to the Governor of California, the President of the United States, the First Lady, Members of Congress, Silicon Valley CEOs, and other notables. He has been a part-time employee and Instructor with The Miller Institute since 2001. In his spare time, Greg is also an undergraduate at the University of California at Santa Cruz.