WIDE World Team

WIDE World collaborates with over 550 instructors, coaches and staff living in all parts of the world in order to provide the best online professional development courses possible.

David Perkins
Principal Investigator

David Perkins, together with Martha Stone Wiske, is one of the two founders and academic directors of WIDE World. They join with executive director David Zarowin to lead the initiative. David Perkins is a senior professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and also co-director for three decades and now senior co-director of Harvard Project Zero, a research and development group at the Graduate School of Education active since 1967.

Earlier, David Perkins was one of the key researchers to develop the Teaching for Understanding model that provides the basis for WIDE World pedagogy and also significant content in several of its courses. More generally, he has sustained lines of research, writing, and program development in areas such as teaching and learning for understanding, creative and critical thinking, organizational learning, cognition in the arts, and the role of technology in education. He is the author of The Eureka Effect, Smart Schools, Outsmarting IQ, Knowledge as Design, King Arthur's Round Table, and several other books as well as many articles.

Martha Stone Wiske
Principal Investigator

Martha Stone Wiske, together with David Perkins, is one of the two founders and academic directors of WIDE World. Stone is a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she has been teaching and conducting collaborative projects with schools for a quarter of a century! Beginning in 1983, she worked at Harvard's Educational Technology Center, a collaborative research center focused on integrating computers in schools to improve education. In the 1990's, along with colleagues in schools and at Harvard, she worked on a project that developed the Teaching for Understanding framework, a clear and coherent model for improving students' performance. She combined these strands of work in developing the Education with New Technologies (ENT) website at http://learnweb.harvard.edu.

WIDE World arose out of these activities, taking advantage of the Internet as a means of helping large numbers of teachers make use of research on effective teaching strategies. Stone is involved in many facets of WIDE World; she developed and taught one of the online courses, she participates in overall planning for the project, and assists in the continual process of assessing and improving the design of WIDE World programs. She continues to teach and conduct research on the creation and assessment of online learning environments and activities, and the development of networked communities of practice. Her special interests include the integration of new technologies and the incorporation of learner-centered teaching for understanding into educational settings, including schools, universities, and other settings. She is the author of Teaching for Understanding with Technology, the editor of Teaching for Understanding: Linking Research with Practice, and is cofounder of the international journal ECi (Education, Communication, and Information).

David Zarowin
Executive Director

David has been leading WIDE World since 2003. Before coming to the Harvard Graduate School of Education, David spent 15 years in various editorial, marketing, business development, and general management positions at Prentice Hall and parent company, Pearson Education. Prior to his Pearson years, David was a labor and industrial historian for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where he served on a team of historians and archaeologists who documented the history of several Massachusetts cities and towns for preservation planning purposes.

Nathan Finch
Director of Program Development

Nathan has been managing the Program Development team at WIDE World since its inception. Nathan works with instructors to develop courses, monitor their success, and make WIDE World's educational experience both academically rigorous and immensely enjoyable.

Prior to his current WIDE World work, he was involved in research at Project Zero, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. During the course of those twelve years he worked on Multiple Intelligences theory, Teaching for Understanding, Authentic Assessment, and, more generally, improving teacher practice.

Dr. Anna Mirny
Research Director

Dr. Anna Mirny oversees the research and evaluation at WIDE, which include monitoring program activities, gauging the quality of program offerings and measuring short- and long-term outcomes of our programs. Anna specializes in cross-cultural educational research, qualitative research, educational program evaluation and curriculum development. She is particularly interested in studying the ways in which cultural contexts shape the educational needs, learning and motivation of students. Prior to her work with WIDE World, Anna served as an educational researcher for Sesame Workshop, where she directed curriculum development and evaluative studies for the production of the new Sesame Street in Russia.

Anna holds a Diploma (Master's equivalent) in Physics Teaching from Moscow State Pedagogical University, Russia and a Master's and a doctorate in Human Development and Psychology from our home, the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Anna's doctoral thesis is an in-depth study of the psycho-social adjustment of immigrant high school students to the culture(s) of American schools. Her postdoctoral research included studying the learning beliefs of high school students in Russia as compared to US and UK students. Anna's work is inspired by her deep interest in human development and the roles of schooling and the larger culture in shaping developmental processes in the contexts of learning.

Dr. Jae-Eun Joo
Researcher

Dr. Jae-Eun Joo has been working in the field of educational technology and teacher education/professional development for the last eighteen years, starting from her B.A. degree in Educational Technology at the Ewha Women's University in South Korea. In collaboration with Research Director Dr. Anna Mirny, Jae-Eun supports various research-related activities at WIDE World including data collection through surveys, observations, and interviews, as well as data analysis using quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Jae-Eun's research interests encompass curriculum development, cross-cultural pedagogy, transformative teacher development, and innovative teaching for human rights and social justice. For her doctoral dissertation research, Jae-Eun designed and carried out a 3-year in-depth study about online learning experiences of fifteen international educators to understand why and how they engaged in learning about human rights. Jae-Eun has been working with teachers and educational systems in many countries around the world through her research and consulting work at the UK Open University, UNESCO, World Bank, and WIDE World during its first two years (1999-2001).

Jae-Eun holds a Master's in Technology in Education, a Certificate of Advanced Study in Human Development and Psychology, and a doctorate in Learning and Teaching, all from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Min Zeng
Education Planner & Int'l Business Development
Manager

Min Zeng is WIDE World's Education Planner. Each day, she works with education leaders on how to best support a district or school's professional development needs by using WIDE World's programs. In addition, she coaches Chinese learners in our Teaching for Understanding 1 course.

Prior to joining WIDE World, Min was a professional development specialist at Mass Networks Education Partnership, a non-profit education consulting firm located in Allston, MA. Specializing in data analysis and project evaluation, Min provided comprehensive data analysis and insight to help drive school improvement. She co-designed and delivered the Data to Learning workshops, which helped many teachers and administrators understand how to use data effectively to monitor and improve student achievement.

Maura Logan
Marketing Manager

Maura is the primary contact for marketing queries, handling tasks involving advertising, publications, conferences, and promotion. With the help of the WIDE World family, she also compiles and writes the WIDE World newsletter and web site. She is especially happy to hear stories from educators who are making a difference in the real world with Teaching for Understanding.

Drew Propson
Latin American Project Manager

Drew manages our projects in Latin America. Drew came to WIDE World after having completed a Ph.D. in Hispanic Languages and Literatures from the University of California, Berkeley. She has been an educator at the university level for over five years and her past experience ranges from examining educational systems in various regions of Latin America to analyzing new sustainability practices. Her research has often bridged these two areas of study, focusing on the emergence of environmentalism in Latin America
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Drew is also an active member of the Surfrider Foundation, a nonprofit organization which understands education to be essential to the future health and well-being of the planet. When not teaching about the importance of protecting our oceans and beaches, Drew enjoys surfing the beautiful waves of New England.

Laura Sitkin
Spanish & English Client Services Coordinator

Laura serves as the liaison between WIDE World and its Spanish-speaking clients, managing course logistics, responding to requests for information, and arranging and supporting workshops for Spanish and English speaking educators. Laura is a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from the University of Miami, and a Master’s in Education in Language and Literacy from Harvard University Graduate School of Education. Before joining WIDE World, she was Assistant Director of Administration at the Hemispheric Institute at New York University; she worked in international scholarship administration at LASPAU: Academic and Professional Programs for the Americas (Harvard University), and at Common Ground Education and Travel, arranging academic and professional exchanges in Cuba.

Qin Jiang
China Project and International Accounts Manager

In the capacity of China Project Manager at WIDE World, Qin serves as liaison between WIDE World and its collaborators in China. She deals with a wide range of issues involved in the professional development courses that WIDE World provides to Chinese educators. In addition, she provides customer support to individual participants from different places in the world who take WIDE World online courses.

Qin went to college in Shanghai, majoring in British and American Language and Literature. She holds a Ph.D. degree in Applied Linguistics from City University of Hong Kong and an Ed.M. degree in International Education Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is interested in building cross-cultural conversations among educators from different cultures, especially between the U.S. and China.

Katie Speanburg
Client Services Manager

Katie collaborates with educators from the United States and all parts of the world such as Jordan, India, Scotland, New Zealand and Uganda, working with local facilitators to ensure that participants have an enriching and satisfying experience while enrolled in WIDE World courses.

Katie is interested in exploring opportunities for children in developing countries to gain greater access to quality education with the aid of the international community. Prior to coming to WIDE World, Katie worked in various educational settings, including in outdoor education, at a charter school and in higher education at the Harvard Business School.

Dave Cairns
Web and Technical Support

Dave Cairns has a varied background, including 7 years of web development and 3 years working with ColdFusion. An ex-Digital employee with extensive experience in technical support for Windows and Unix, Dave has also worked as a consultant for Boston Scientific Corporation, where he provided support for the entire company.

Betty Asamoah
Senior Finance Officer

Betty Asamoah is the Senior Finance Officer for WIDE World and PPE, arriving at Harvard eighteen years ago. Prior to coming to the Graduate School of Education in September 2004, Betty was at the Harvard Business School's Executive Education for two years and at Harvard Real Estate for 12 years. In 1999, Betty spent three years pursuing a career in IT. During that break, she worked at Genuity as a Systems Engineer writing business requirements for the engineering group.

Martha Ryan
Finance Associate

Martha Ryan is WIDE World's Finance Associate, dealing with contracts, budgets, and processing of course payments.

Before coming to the Graduate School of Education, Martha spent several years as a preschool teacher and eight years working in residential services for mentally ill adults in both a clinical and administrative capacity.

Patrick Schneiter
Customer Support

Patrick Schneiter supports contract administration and financial activities related to course administration and travel for face-to-face workshops and course kickoffs. He supports English-language WIDE World courses and serves as one of the front line for customer support.

He is currently studying at Harvard as a social sciences concentrator with a focus in Anthropology and Archaeology of Pre-Columbian American Civilizations, as well as studying Tai Chi and volunteering with the Big Brother program in Boston."