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MEHopper / About / Purdue

Dr. Mary Hopper received her Ph.D. in Educational Computing and Instructional Design (1993), M.S. in Educational Psychology with specializations in Educational Evaluation and Measurement (1989), and a B.A. in English, Education and (1985) from Purdue University.

This page outlines her professional activities while at Purdue.

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Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction (1993)
Specializations in Educational Computing, Instructional Design

Dissertation

Hopper, M. E. (1993). Educational courseware production in advanced computing environments. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.

Twenty Years of Related Publications and Presentations

Hopper, M.E. (2013, October). Wisdom from Athena: A paradigm for precognition [Presentation]. Society of History of Technology. SIGCIS Workshop: Recomputing the History of Information Technology, Portland, ME.

Hopper, M. E. (2004). Methods for studying educational computing projects: Challenges and opportunities. In J. Impagliazzo and J. Lee (Ed.). History of Computers in Education. Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Hopper, M. E. (2004, August). Methods for studying educational computing projects: Challenges and opportunities [Presentation]. History of Computers in Education SIG, IFIP World Computer Congress Conference, Toulouse, France.

Hopper, M. E. & Summer, R. B. (2001, February). Where’s the media? Models for creating and distributing teacher and student made digital media [Presentation]. Second Wiring the Classroom Conference. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.

Hopper, M.E. (1997, March). The role of learners in the construction of successful courseware projects in distributed academic computing environments [Round-table Presentation]. Annual Meeting of American Educational Research Association, Advanced Technologies for Learning (SIG-ATL), Chicago, IL.

Hopper, M. E. (Ed.) (1997). Networked Multimedia Information Services: Final report. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Educational Computing Initiatives.

Ali-Ahmad, et.al. [Hopper, M. E. (Ed.)] (1996). AthenaMuse 2.2 Documentation. Cambridge, MA: Center for Educational Computing Initiatives, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Hopper, M. E. (1994). Usable software in advanced educational computing projects. ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics, 28(1), 46-48.

Hopper, M. E. (1993). Expert’s views about courseware development in advanced computing environments [Abstract]. Proceedings of ED-MEDIA 93 – Conference on Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 607.

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David Ross Fellow, Courseware Production in Advanced Computing Environments (1993)
Purdue Research Foundation, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

Conducted a doctoral study designed to explore how issues from older educational computing projects became intertwined with new problems during courseware projects in distributed computing environments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Brown University and Purdue University. Interviews with 19 participants and content from documents were used to construct a model describing relationships among educational goals, technical characteristics, and organizational structures.

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Project Manager, Purdue Knowledge System (1992-1993)

Mary Hopper led development of something that she informally dubbed the Purdue Knowledge System. It was an unfunded effort that was the natural culmination of two related projects below that were separately sanctioned and funded by Purdue’s School of Engineering and School of Education between 1989 and 1993. Hopper also managed the conversion of the HyperCard version of the system into a networked version viewable in Gopher, HyperNews and the World Wide Web. This happened to make the Purdue Knowledge System one of the earliest and largest university sites on the early Web. More …

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Interactive Multimedia Designer, Education Specific Career-planning System (1992-1993)
College of Education, Purdue University

Mary Hopper helped to develop an education career information system called the Education Career-planning System (ECS) that was organized around the education majors in the School of Education. The system included information on careers, plans of study available at Purdue University (including all engineering course descriptions), as well as descriptions of key organizations and publications. In addition, she managed the promotion of the use of the system for introductory courses in Purdue’s School of Education.

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Instructor, ED591K: HyperCard (1991-1992)
Taught a course that explored the educational applications of HyperCard. Students were led through assignments to digitize a variety of media (sound, photographs, and motion clips), and they were also introduced to programming with HyperTalk.

Instructor, EDCI 460: Educational Technology for Teaching and Learning (1990-1992)
Taught the lab component of an introductory course about the appraisal, utilization, and evaluation of software and hardware in education. Completed an extensive revision of the lab manual.

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Project Manager, Engineering Career System (1989-1993)
Engineering Research and Information Systems, Freshman Engineering

Mary Hopper helped to develop an engineering career information system called Engineering Specific Career-planning and Problem-solving Environment (ESCAPE) that was organized around twelve engineering disciplines. The system included information on specific careers, plans of study available at Purdue University (including all engineering course descriptions), as well as descriptions of key organizations and publications. A unique aspect of the system was the inclusion of sample problem-solving exercises to help users to differentiate and understand the nature of specific fields of engineering. In addition, she managed the successful conversion of the HyperCard version of the project into a networked version viewable in HyperNews or a Mosaic browser. She also assisted in writing a number of successful proposals to internal groups and external funding agencies including the National Science Foundation.

Related Publications

Hopper, M. E., LeBold, W. K., Feghali, A. A. (1991). A hypermedia-based problem solving approach to engineering, learning, working, and playing. Frontiers in Education Conference Proceedings, 73-78.

LeBold, W. K., Hopper, M. E., Feghali, A. A. (1991). A hypermedia solution to a hyper problem: Personalized computer engineering career system. ASEE-IEEE Annual Conference Proceedings: Educational Research and Methods Division, 482-488.

Related Teaching

Co-Instructor, ENGR 195C: Engineering Career Development
Assisted with implementing and evaluating the role of ESCAPE within a special experimental section of the guidance course required for all freshman engineering majors at Purdue University. She received the 1992 Magoon Award for Teaching in Engineering in recognition of this work.

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Researcher/Project Manager, Logo Word World’s, Apple & Head Start (1989-1993)

Mary Hopper participated in an Apple funded research directed by Dr. Robert W. Lawler. She held primary responsibility for analysis and reporting of data from a pilot study designed to demonstrate the feasibility of using Logo micro-worlds for introducing pre-reading to children at Lafayette Head Start. Coordinated tutoring and data collection of graduate students working on the project. In addition, she led the aspect of the project concerned with producing software based emulations of the Apple hardware based TI 99 Sprite-Logo System. Demonstrations were made in Macromind Director, HyperCard and Object Logo. Programmed a HyperCard version. Also wrote the report delivered to Apple at the conclusion of the project.

Related Publications

Hopper, M. E. & Lawler, R. W. (1997). A progress report for the Head Start-Apple Logo Project. In R. W. Lawler (Ed.), Learning and computing: A dual-medium book (pp. 36-40). UK: Intellect Books.

Hopper, M. E. and Lawler, R. W. (1991, August). Pre-Readers’ Word Worlds: Results of experiences with young children and new directions [Poster]. Thirteenth annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Evanston, IL.

Related Teaching

Instructor, EDCI 562:Educational Applications of Logo (1993)
Instructor, ED591: AI and Education (1992)

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M.S. Educational Psychology, Specialization in Evaluation and Research Methods (1989)
Department of Educational Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

Co-Instructor, ED 524: Classroom Tests and Measurements (1988-1989)
Assisted Dr. Kathryn Linden with instruction in an advanced graduate course about developing, analyzing, and interpreting measures of educational achievement. Presented lectures, directed labs and graded examinations.

Course Coordinator, ED 285: Educational Psychology (1986-1989)
Assisted the course director, Dr. Kathryn Linden, with managing instruction and evaluation for a required multi-section undergraduate course which employed 10 graduate instructors and served approximately 350 students each semester.
Coordinated the construction of three norm-referenced tests made by course instructors under the supervision of the course director.
Compiled an extensive test item data bank with 10 years of detailed item analysis data.
The resulting tests were very similar to the ETS’s National Teaching Exam.
Taught one or two sections of the course per semester.
Oversaw course labs structured around extensive small group problem solving exercises.
Supervised two or three undergraduate course assistants each semester.

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Indiana Teaching Licenses (1985-1998)
Secondary English (9-12)
Junior High/Middle School Language Arts (5-9)
Gifted and Talented Endorsement (K-12)
Computer Education Endorsement (K-12)

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Program Coordinator, Super Saturday/Summer (1987-1989)
Gifted Education Resource Institute (GERI)
Gifted and Talented Education Program

Mary Hopper served a number of roles within an organization that provided special 18 hour courses to gifted and talented youth with IQ 115+ or achievement above the 90th percentile. Her roles included assisting the Program Director (John Feldhusen), with teacher supervision and evaluation. She also produced a manual for future Coordinators of the Super Saturday/Summer program.

Assistant Editor, Purdue Creative Thinking Program, Third Edition (1987-1988)
Assisted Dr. John F. Feldhusen with the revising the materials distributed with an audio program that was designed to encourage the development of Torrence’s creative thinking skills of fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration.

Directed proofreading and re-editing of scripts, exercises, lesson summaries, directions, bibliographies and reference materials distributed with the audio tapes.

Completed biographical research, script writing, and editing of two new lessons in the series (George Washington Carver and Wilma Rudolph).

Coordinator, Purdue Mentor Program (1986-1987)
Administered mentor program for exceptionally gifted and talented students.
Planned and directed orientation sessions for 20 mentors and 90 participants. Complied a program evaluation report.

Super Saturday Workshop for Teachers
Designed, taught and evaluated the three-hour on how to create differentiated units for gifted and talented students. Participation in the workshop was required of all instructors.

Designed, taught and evaluated two classes intended to serve as demonstration courses as well as permanent additions to the regular offerings of the program.
Creative Thinking (K-2)
Inventions (K-2)

Designed and taught a number of other courses.
Preparation for the SAT (7-12) [5 Sections]
Astronomy (3-6) [2 Sections]
Young Astronauts (K-2) [2 Sections]
Creative Writing (4-6) [1 Sections]

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B.A. English and Education (1985)
Department of English, School of Humanities, Social Science and Education

Trivia Mary Hopper had “almost” enough credits to declare majors in Psychology (1 course short) and Art (2 courses short) as well as an “almost minor” in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences with a focus on Astrophysics (1 course short). She didn’t complete and include them because her senior year she found out that none of them would have been able to be declared due to the fact that they wouldn’t have been “teaching” specialties since she didn’t take the “teaching” courses in Art and there were no “teaching” specializations in Psychology and Astrophysics. She would have been required to leave “teaching” off of the degree title to include them so that no one would interpret the degree as implying teaching competencies rather than just majors and a minor. Thus Mary only ended up appearing to have the requirements for a full English major with additional coursework to include “Education” on the title of the degree. She did take the one course that she needed to finish her Psychology degree the summer after she finished her undergraduate degree and started graduate school, but Purdue would not-retroactively add the Psychology major.

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Humanities, Social Science, and Education Library (HSSE)

Mary Hopper began working in libraries in 5th grade and then continued to do so continuously until she entered graduate school and needed to take positions related to her graduate curriculum.

Bibliographic Researcher (1984-1985)
Provided original cataloging for the Gift Book Collection of the Purdue University Libraries. Determined current status of books for purposes of evaluation.
Supervised by L. Kovacs, Head Librarian

Library Assistant (1981-1984)
Worked in Technical Services Department shelving periodical, reference, and general collections. Participated in relocating all books during the major library renovation.
Supervised by Barbara Penzelik, Associate Librarian

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Course Assistant, ENGL 420: Business Writing (1981-1983)
Supported instructors in a course that served about 1,500 students in about 75 sections per year. Organized and maintained the course’s collection of handouts and other supporting materials. These materials later became the original core documents used in the Online Writing Lab (OWL). More …
Supervised by Jeanne Halpern, ENGL 420: Business Writing Course Director


© M. E. Hopper