Jason Ravitz

Current

Research Director at Buck Institute for Education

Past

Post-Doc, Center for Innovative Learning Technologies at UC, Berkeley / SRI International
Visiting Scholar/Post-doc, Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT) at SRI International
Post-Doc, UC Irvine at Center for Information Technology in Organizations

National School Network Staff, Lead Instructional Design, Evaluator at BBN Educational Technologies
Education Researcher at BBN Technologies
Consultant, Assistant to President at Management Strategies (Sole Proprietorship)
Computer Teacher at Medford Public Schools

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4 more...

Education

Syracuse University
Harvard University
Harvard University Graduate School of Education

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Recommended

6 people have recommended Jason

Connections

198 connections

Industry

Education Management

Websites

Jason Ravitz’s Summary

Synthesizing large amounts of information, bridging research-and-practice.

Jason Ravitz’s Specialties:

Educational technology, evaluation methods, large-scale data analysis and survey research, technology supported assessment, problem- and project-based learning, high school social studies, teacher professional development

Jason Ravitz’s Experience

Research Director

Buck Institute for Education

(Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Research industry)

June 2001 — Present (8 years 2 months)

The Buck Institute for Education (BIE) is a non-profit, research and development organization dedicated to improving the practice of teaching and the process of learning. We create curriculum and training materials, provide professional development, and conduct and disseminate research. Our current focus is making schools and classrooms more effective through the use of problem and project based learning.

Created in 1987, BIE receives permanent funding from the Leonard and Beryl Buck Trust, and funding for specific projects from foundations, schools and school districts, state educational agencies and the federal government.

BIE conducts many projects in partnership with other organizations including WestEd, the National High School Alliance, the Johnson Foundation and the George Lucas Educational Foundation.
Post-Doc, Center for Innovative Learning Technologies

UC, Berkeley / SRI International

(Educational Institution; 11-50 employees; E-Learning industry)

August 2000 — August 2002 (2 years 1 month)

Post-doc in Assessments for Learning -- designed and taught online course on technology supported assessments; studied handheld assessment of student collaboration, oversaw seed grants and conference sessions
Visiting Scholar/Post-doc, Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT)

SRI International

(Education Management industry)

2000 — 2002 (2 years)
Post-Doc, UC Irvine

Center for Information Technology in Organizations

(Educational Institution; 1-10 employees; Research industry)

August 1998 — August 2000 (2 years 1 month)

Analyst and author on national study called Teaching, Learning & Computing: 1998. Helped write winning PT3 grants and served as guest lecturer in research courses.
National School Network Staff, Lead Instructional Design, Evaluator

BBN Educational Technologies

(Public Company; 11-50 employees; Telecommunications industry)

June 1995 — August 1998 (3 years 3 months)

Worked as a staff member on the National School Network project, funded by the National Science Foundation. I continued working for BBN while attended graduate school at Syracuse. I learned that people were very interested when I shared lessons from my evaluation courses. This provided me with opportunities to meet a lot of great folks and I eventually served as lead evaluator for Online Internet Institute, and designer of the Site Feedback Form for Educators - a way of addressing information needs of teachers. My dissertation used a survey I wrote with Henry Jay "Hank" Becker for the BBN project.

When BBN was bought by GTE Internetworking I stayed on as Lead Instructional Designer on a military software logistics project until receiving post doc offers.
Education Researcher

BBN Technologies

(Education Management industry)

1994 — 1998 (4 years)
Consultant, Assistant to President
Management Strategies (Sole Proprietorship)

(Sole Proprietorship; 1-10 employees; Management Consulting industry)

1989 — 1994 (5 years)

Management Strategies consults on information technology projects in large companies and provides development expertise (high level programmers).

I learned what it takes to run a small but highly competitive consulting business and was involved in every aspect - executive sales, proposal writing, maintaining client relations, recruiting and payroll, files and databases, taxes, etc.
Computer Teacher

Medford Public Schools

(Educational Institution; 201-500 employees; Computer Software industry)

September 1993 — June 1994 (10 months)

Taught computer lab classes in high school (3 days a week) and elementary school (2 days a week). My certification was in social studies, but working at Management Strategies allowed me to become a computer teacher. I loved the little kids but felt like my energy was a better fit for high school.

I was a long-term substitute for the entire year, but was told I couldn't be hired because of seniority issues in the district.

That winter I saw Beverly Hunter at the Boston Computer Society and emailed her about a paper she had on Gopher, a precursor to the Web. I also heard about the field of instructional design from a woman while seated together on an airplane. Soon I was working at BBN and attending Syracuse University.

Jason Ravitz’s Education

Syracuse University

Ph.D. , Instructional Design, Development & Evaluation , 1995 — 1998

Activities and Societies:

Continued working on projects at BBN through graduate school. Worked on AskEric project with Discovery Channel. Co-taught in Future Professoriate Program -- courses in both history of educational technology and technology in schools. Also guest lectured at the Summer Institute in the School of informaiton Studies. Received 3-year university-wide fellowship.
Harvard University

B.A. , Sociology, Psychology, Education , 1984 — 1989
Harvard University Graduate School of Education

UTEP , UTEP program - social studies , 1984 — 1989