Dennis Harper
NationalityAmerican
OccupationEducator
Known forStudent-driven technology education

Dennis O. Harper is an American educator and the founder of Generation YES, a nonprofit technology education organization founded in 1999.[1] He is an active advocate for the transformative power of technology in education and for student leadership as change agents in schools.[2][3][4]

Career

Education and Early Teaching Career

Harper began his career teaching secondary school mathematics, science, and computer science from 1968 to 1979, at schools in the United States, Australia, West Germany, Liberia, and Spain.[5] He received a master’s degree in education from the University of California, and a Ph.D. in international education in 1984. Harper was also a lecturer at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in 1983. He served as a supervisor of Teacher Education and director of the Special Education Computer Center and taught education and sociology courses at the University of California, Santa Barbara until 1986. In 1986 and 1987 he was the Educational Computing Coordinator at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. He was a Visiting Professor of Educational Technology at the University of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland in 1987. From January 1988 to June 1992 Harper was an associate professor of Education and Academic Computing at the University of the Virgin Islands in St. Thomas. While in the Virgin Islands, he worked with a team to create distance learning in Caribbean countries and founded Caribbean Computer Users in Education, serving as its president until 1991.

Founder of Generation YES

In 1992, Harper was hired as the technology coordinator for the Olympia School District in Olympia, Washington. In 1996, Harper secured a Technology Innovation Challenge Grant from the U.S. Department of Education to launch Generation Y, a program which trained elementary, middle, and high school students to work with classroom teachers to incorporate technology into their teaching.[6][7] In the program, based on the theory of constructionism, students and teachers worked together to develop lesson plans using school computer resources.[2]

In 1999, Harper founded Generation YES, to expand the Gen Y model and student technology leadership programs to schools around the United States and other countries.[8] During his tenure, Generation YES programs were implemented in hundreds of schools worldwide supporting project-based learning, student leadership, teacher professional development, and technology initiatives including One Laptop Per Child, virtual learning, and technology literacy certification.[9][10][11] Harper headed Generation YES until his retirement in 2021. Generation YES continues under the auspices of the Ohio Management Council where their curriculum, 20 years of research, and numerous videos are available to K-12 schools.[12]

Other Work

Harper was on the board of directors for the International Society for Technology in Education from June 1997 to June 1999.[13] He has served on advisory boards with a variety of organizations and journals, including Technology and Learning Journal and Computers in the Schools Journal.[14][15] He was also the International Editor of the Logo Exchange.[16] Harper was instrumental in the development of the Liberian Renaissance Education Complex, which opened in 2007, and currently serves on the founding advisory board for Harvest Intercontinental American University in Monrovia, Liberia.[17][18][19] He has been a keynote speaker and presenter at numerous education and technology conferences throughout the world.

Publications

Harper wrote RUN: Computer Education while a faculty member at the University of California, which was published in two distinct editions.[20][21] He authored the Principal’s Guide to Student Technology Leadership in 2018.[22] He is also the author of numerous journal articles and textbooks, including Logo: Theory & Practice.[23]

Awards and accolades

Harper has received the Golden Apple Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (1997). He has been named "Shaper of Our Future" by Converge magazine (2000), "Technology Advocate for the United States" by District Administrator (2001), "Distinguished Educator of the Year" by Technology & Learning (1992), and one of the "Daring Dozen" by Edutopia magazine (2008).

His creation of GenYES has also led to wide acclaim throughout the education industry, as one recent journal exemplified by proclaiming, "Dennis Harper literally wrote the blueprint on how to work with students to create technology plans."[24]

References

  1. ↑ Tech & Learning published (2010-01-29). "Dennis Harper". TechLearningMagazine. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
  2. 1 2 "Students as Change Agents: Kids Help Integrate Tech Into the Classroom". Edutopia. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
  3. ↑ "Technology Literacy as a Catalyst for Systemic Change, by Dennis O. Harper & Rebecca F. Kemper", . Dennis Harper & Rebecca F. Kemper. Technological Horizons in Education Journal Retrieved 9/20/21.
  4. ↑ Harper, Dennis (August 2003), "Students as change agents: the generation y model", Technology-Rich Learning Environments, WORLD SCIENTIFIC, pp. 307–329, doi:10.1142/9789812564412_0014, ISBN 978-981-238-435-5, retrieved 2023-06-05
  5. ↑ Burgos, M. "Interview with the Director of Generation www.Y". SCR*TEC. Retrieved 7/22/08.
  6. ↑ "Technology Innovation Challenge Grant Program". www2.ed.gov. 2014-06-16. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
  7. ↑ "Generation YES » Generation YES History & Philosophy". 2007-03-18. Archived from the original on 2007-03-18. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
  8. ↑ U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology (2010). Transforming American Education Learning Powered By Technology. U.S. Department of Education. p. 60.
  9. ↑ "A Generation YES for One Laptop Per Child". OLPC News. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
  10. ↑ "Dennis Harper: An Expert View on Teacher Preparation". Edutopia. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
  11. ↑ "Generation YES Launches New Student Technology Literacy Certification". THE Journal. 2004-08-01. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
  12. ↑ "GenYES". Retrieved 2023-06-10.
  13. ↑ Tech & Learning published (2010-01-29). "Dennis Harper". TechLearningMagazine. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
  14. ↑ (2007) "GenYES founder calls for student tech input: a prominent industry voice says kids should play a role in the development and execution of technology plans." T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education).
  15. ↑ Armstrong, S. (2001) "Turning the Tables: Students Teach Teachers", Edutopia. Retrieved 7/22/08.
  16. ↑ "Logo Foundation Publications | Logo Update". el.media.mit.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
  17. ↑ "Sirleaf Breaks Ground for Liberian Renaissance Education Complex". www.emansion.gov.lr. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
  18. ↑ "People – HIAU | Harvest Intercontinental American University". hiauniversity.org. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
  19. ↑ "Our School Liberia". Our School Liberia. Retrieved 2023-06-10.
  20. ↑ Harper, D & Stewart, J. (1986) RUN: Computer Education. ISBN 0-534-01265-5
  21. ↑ Harper, Dennis; Stewart, James (1986). Run: Computer Education (2nd ed.). Brooks/Cole Pub. Co. ISBN 978-0534054069.
  22. ↑ Harper, Dennis (2018). Principal's Guide to Student Technology Leadership. Cisco. ISBN 978-1986132640.
  23. ↑ Harper, Dennis (1989). Logo: Theory and Practice. Brooks/Cole Pub Co. ISBN 978-0534097202.
  24. ↑ (2007) GenYES Founder Calls For Student Tech Input. T.H.E. Journal January.
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