Professor Mark Miller featured in The Education View magazine

by Meredith Hutcheson

Mark Miller, Lecturer for the Khoury College of the Computer Sciences at Northeastern University in Silicon Valley, is featured as the cover profile of this month’s edition of The Education View.

The profile is a celebration of his contributions to education through The Miller Institute for Learning with Technology (Learningtech.org), the organization which he founded and leads as President and Executive Director.

Dr. Miller’s career, from his PhD work at MIT to his work at Texas Instruments (TI), Apple, and others, includes a throughline focus on how children’s education can be expanded through the use of computers and technology.

The magazine describes some of the work that Learningtech.org takes on as part of their mission “to hep schools make better decisions about what technologies to invest in and how to use those technologies more effectively for learning”:

“Mark noticed that schools serving less fortunate students tended to have not only the least capable technologies but also the least inspiring ways of using technology for learning. An essential part of his vision was to ensure that less fortunate children were not left out of the future due to near-term costs.

The core values driving Mark’s work at Learningtech.org include integrity, perseverance and social justice. A prime example of this commitment is an emphasis on ensuring that schools have fast, reliable access to the Internet.

Much of Learningtech.org’s recent efforts have focused on helping schools serving communities with high free/reduced lunch populations obtain better internet access through a federal discount program called E-Rate. This essential program involves a complex application process, making it challenging for many high-needs schools to apply successfully.”

The full profile is an excellent read highlighting an educator who is also a student favorite on Northeastern’s campuses in Silicon Valley and Oakland.

Dr. Miller began teaching with Khoury College in 2019, and is a member of the faculty for the MS in Computer Science – Align program, which offers students with a bachelor’s degree in any subject a pathway into a career in technology. Align students begin with introductory courses to fill the gaps in their knowledge, and ultimately complete the same computer science master’s curriculum as their peers who came into the program with pre-existing knowledge.

In an interview with Northeastern, Dr. Miller spoke about how his work with students in the Align program fits in with his overall philosophy of education.

Dr. Miller’s commitment to accessible and effective education is always visible in his attentiveness both in and out of the classroom. He also provides a lived example for students of constructing a career that includes both breadth of experience and an area of specific, focused impact. In his career journey, he’s applied many different angles of inquiry and action to the same goals, a story that will surely resonate with many Align students.