> Colleges > Cabrillo > Rod Norden
ACE Faculty
NAME: Rod Norden
COLLEGE: Cabrillo College
TITLE: Instructor
DEPARTMENT: Computer Science & ACE
EMAIL: ronorden@cabrillo.edu
WEBSITE: www.rodnorden.com & http://babyface.cabrillo.edu/salsa/listing.jsp?staffId=1478
INVOLVED WITH ACE SINCE: 2008
ACE COURSES TAUGHT/TEACHING:
Introduction to Computers & Computer Technology
Team-Self Management 2
I am qualified to teach the Foundation Course. Also, I often consult with other instructors remotely to assist them with any computer science issues that arise during their teaching, especially Excel questions during Social Justice Intensive.
REASON FOR BECOMING INVOLVED WITH ACE:
I attended the Faculty Experimental Learning Institute (FELI) in June 2008, and was absolutely hooked on the techniques we learned about ourselves that could be applied to training both at-risk and regular students. I found the learning styles section to be the most illuminating, since the methods explained to me what activities energized me and the other activities which drained energy from me.
Now that I have actually taught as a team member several cohorts, I realize the lasting effect we can have on our students. My ACE cohorts can make very fundamental changes in the way our students learn to study, to show up on time and prepared how to succeed and a difficult task, and most importantly, how to believe in themselves and their own abilities! So many of our students come in without these skills and at the end of the semester, many of the students are overcome with the feeling that they have succeeded.
One student in particular comes to mind. He was on parole, and I noticed him hiding his tears on morning at the end of the course, and I questioned him. His answer was “I walked in here four months ago unable to turn on the computer, and I can’t believe that in this short time, I am now tweaking my web page! I never dreamed I could ever do this!”
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND:
I was graduated from University of Arizona with a BS in Astrophysics (with Highest Honors), and an MS in Computer Science, since jobs in astronomy were so scare at the time. At the University, I worked on the first spacecraft to reach the outer planets, Jupiter and Saturn, and my work involved image enhancement and display. I was one of the few people on earth to see the first close-up of Jupiter’s Red Spot 9n the early 1970’s. It was extremely exciting and I worked with some of the top planetary astronomers, like Carl Sagan
After school, I was hired by Bell Laboratories to work on the early development of the UNIX operating system (in the 1970’s) before it was formally distributed. When we think of the importance of Linux today, it feels great to know that I added some very early features which have survived to this day.
During the summer of 1979, I was recruited by Bob Metcalf (co-developer of the Ethernet) and worked with Charles Simonyi and other staff to work on the advanced Xerox Alto machine at Xerox PARC in Palo Alto. Our team developed all the technology that became the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Word years later. It was a great experience to be the dumbest person in the building! Most modern technology was developed there in the 1970s and early 1980s. It was the top honor of my computer science career to work there.
In the early 1980’s I developed my love for teaching when I was offered the task of developing custom courses for the internal engineer’s and the top customers of various companies. I found that developing software took energy from me, and teaching restored the energy, so I gradually switched into a purely education role by 1990.
I taught very advanced training for customers of Sun Microsystems and Tandem Computers both in the US and in almost 40 countries overseas. I was even in charge of setting up and certifying International Training Centers for Sun Microsystems everywhere but the Antarctic!
I found that I really missed helping relative beginners so I started teaching at UCSC Extension (even taught 2 custom classes for Stanford University), and then moved to Austin Community College by the end of the 1990s. I loved the beginners because they were so eager to learn anything about how computers worked, and their fascination was infectious.
Before I found Cabrillo and the Academy for College Excellence, I was teaching custom advanced classes for Sun Microsystems clients as a contractor, but my happiest years have been here at Cabrillo assisting our beginning students. I love sharing with them the history of computing and lighting their fires of curiosity, as Diego says so well.
In the ACE, program we get to help the students with much more than their standard education. We get to teach them life skills as well. This the most rewarding part of the job to me.