Kenneth Brumbaugh





Ken Brumbaugh has a very long history of leadership involvement in the field of computers in education. This includes:


 * Teaching high school physics and mathematics;
 * Teaching in several universities;
 * President of the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium;
 * Executive Director, Texas Center for Educational Technology; :* K-12 Public School District Director of Technology, Mounds View Schools, St. Paul, MN;
 * Director of Academic Technology, Millikin University, Decatur, IL;
 * Vice President of Computing and Information, Minneapolis Community & Technical College, Minneapolis, MN.
 * A very large amount of consulting, doing workshops, and giving talks.

The following summary is quoted from his Linkedin page:


 * Started using computers in the classroom in 1965 at Hollidaysburg, PA senior high school - one of the first schools in America to use the Dartsmouth time-sharing system - Every since then, I have used computers to teach, supported the use of computers in teaching, or have produced software and services for computing using educations. Having four decades of experience using computers to assist mankind in solving problems and communicating with others has resulted in an unique capability to tackle many information technology problems and issues. At this point in my career, I simply enjoy helping others solve problems, and figure out what to do - when issues seem tough or out of control.

More detail on some of these activities is given below.

Early History
Quoting from a 1984 article Ken Brumbaugh wrote for Creative Computing:


 * Nineteen years ago [that is, in 1965] I began using computers as a supplement to the math and science classes I was teaching. Ever since then I have been directly involved in the use and support of all purpose instructional computing at local, state, national, and international levels.
 * In those early years computing educators were faced with problems such as the availability of funds, isolated and narrow base of activities, and the need for individual and institutional acceptance. Today a much larger group of computing educators is still faced with the problem of funding along with several new ones. Now they face an enormous array of computing equipment to procure, an even larger body of quality computer of software, and extensive curricular planning.


 * In 1965, when I began teaching with computers, student interest in timeshared computing was overwhelming. A school considered itself lucky if it had a single computer, so naturally students and teachers pulled many strings to find ways to maximize its use. School custodians were taught to enter student paper tapes at night and even bribed to open buildings at odd hours. I remember an average student who wrote a sophisticated computer program to track missiles and completed it in several months. It was then I knew that this thing called the computer was not going to be a passing fad in education. It made kids smile and want to try more. And it still does!

Ken's high school teaching experience includes:


 * Physics Teacher, Tremper High School, Kenosha, WI.


 * Mathematics and Physics Teacher, Hollidaysburg High School, Hollidaysburg, PA.

College Teaching
Quoting from a 1984 article Ken Brumbaugh wrote for Creative Computing:

My college teaching in the early 1970's was highlighted by the receipt of two National Science Foundation Grants to develop instructional computing courseware (computer programs and the related teacher support manuals) for use by secondary mathematics, science, and social science teachers. Others such as Lud Braun at Stony Brook, NY had made similar efforts but, in general, colleges and their faculties were not attuned to the growing interest and need for all purpose instructional computing materials. Most college educators at the time thought that computing in schools meant simply learning to program. Today we see the computer being used in all disciplines and at all levels of educations for simple and complex programming and as a valuable supplement to conventional instruction. Ken's college teach experiences include:


 * Tenured Associate Professor, Technology and Cognition, University of North Texas, Denton, TX.
 * Instructor, Science Education, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI.
 * Instructor, Physical Science, Towson University, Baltimore, MD.

Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium
Quoting from the Wikipedia:


 * The Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (later Corporation), most commonly known as MECC, was an organization founded in 1973. The goal of the organization was to coordinate and provide computer services to almost all schools in the state of Minnesota, however its software eventually became popular in schools throughout the entire United States.

A Oral history interview with Dale Eugene LaFrenz recounts LaFrenz's role in getting MECC started. The following quote indicates the transition from LaFrenz to Dale Brumbaugh being the leader of MECC. Bold has been added for emphais.


 * In 1978 I [Dale LaFrenz] left MECC because the microcomputer had come on strong and I was interested in expanding my experience so I went off to Scott Foresman & Co. in Illinois. … The short of the long is that Apple won [the competition to be the microcomputer provider], a bit through default on Radio Shack's part, but anyway Apple won the bid. MECC starting buying and we sold 500 Apple II's and began converting in earnest.  At the same time then the rest of the country awakened to the fact that microcomputers in classrooms would be the thing of the future.  Many  schools began buying Apple computers.   Usually what happened after schools bought computers they said,  "Now that we've got it, what are we going to do with it?"  They didn't have any software.  So the common answer was "Go to MECC" because MECC had software.  I wasn't  at MECC at the time.  I was gone by then.  Ken Brumbaugh was the person who took over when I left. He was on the staff and then he took over the instructional services position when I left.  Later, he became the  executive director of the company.

=Up Close and Personal= Comment from Dave Moursund. I first met Ken when we became part of the team working with the Apple Education Foundation to review proposals coming into the Foundation. I found his to be a delightful, witty person, and deeply insightful person. I think of him as always having a mischievous grin on his face.

=References= Brumbaugh, Ken (n.d.). Website. Retrieved 8/30/07: http://faculty.metrostate.edu/BRUMBAKE/index.htm.

Brumbaugh, Ken (November 1984). Reflections on educational computing. Creative Computing. V10 N11. Retrieved 1/3/09: http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v10n11/170_Reflections_on_educationa.php.

=Author or Authors=