Matt Mooney
Assistant Professor of Web & Interactive Media
Penn College of Technology
Milestones
My road in life has taken me all over.
Decided at 20 I wanted to be a University President, so I needed to go to grad school.
Walked out after teaching my first class and "found" my calling.
Started a Ph.D. at Purdue in family studies focused on violence prevention.
Took a 4 week summer class on "Web page programming" back in the 90's that changed EVERYTHING.
Left family studies and started a new Ph.D. in Educational Technology.
Became a Web & database geek and started building amazing things.
Came back to teaching after being a tech administrator, it felt good to come home, until now.
Looking to lead educators and institutions now, I can do more as a leader than I can teaching.
Keep following my journey
Education
High School
Career
Assistant Professor of Web & Interactive Media
I teach, I learn, and I try to inspire my students to do and be more.
Career Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Technology
Education
Teaching / Mentoring
Day to Day
As a professor, I teach, I challenge, and I do my best to excite and inspire my students. Right now I teach future creative professionals, I used to teach pre-service teachers. Since my field changes all the time, I'm constantly learning. I LOVE that! My goal is to help my students catch that bug. I want them to be ready for the professional world, but also to be excited about all the unknowns that await them. I challenge them to think about how they learn, and learn things for the sake of learning.
Advice for Getting Started
Here's the first step for college students
Learn to fail. So much of what we do is learned through doing. If you can't be comfortable with failing and learning from those failures, you're going to have a really difficult time in most technology professions. Being comfortable with failure means developing troubleshooting and critical thinking skills. It's about solving problems and finding multiple solutions so you can use the best one.
Recommended Education
My career is not related to what I studied. I'd recommend this path instead:
Hurdles
The Noise I Shed
From Family:
"You should take that job, it's secure and close to home. Do you know how many years I worked to make that kind of salary? Why would you go to grad school and live in near poverty?"
Challenges I Overcame
Learning Issues
First-Generation College Student
