User:LaMenta3/My Sandbox/Mark Weston (academic)

Mark Weston is an American educator and policy advisor. He is the associate dean of learning systems for Professional Education at Georgia Tech. Weston co-authored The Learning Edge: How Technology Can Help Educate All Children with Alan Bain and is an advocate of educational technology and learning management systems. He has headed education technology initiatives at both Apple and Dell and advised governments in 13 countries and 42 states on education, information and communications technology, and policy initiatives.

Education
Weston received a Bachelor of Social Science in Education and Psychology from Cornell College in 1974. He earned a Master of Social Economics in Counseling and Personnel Services from Drake University in 1975. Weston received his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Innovation from the University of Colorado in 2007. The title of his dissertation was "Critical constructs as indicators of a shifting paradigm in education: A case study of four technology-rich schools".

Career
Weston began his career as a a school counselor, but soon began consulting with and advising leaders in state governments on education and other policy issues. In the 1980s, Weston was the education program manager for the National Conference of State Legislatures and headed a team of educational experts that provided research-based policy recommendations to state legislators. Throughout the 1990s, he continued to advise on education policy matters for individual legislators and as the state-services coordinator for the Education Commission of the States. In the late '90s and early 2000s, Weston helped Apple develop and implement a series of educational technology initiatives including the Maine Learning Technology Initiative and the Freedom to Learn initiative in Michigan. He later worked with Dell as an education strategist to develop strategies and initiatives such as Project Outcomes, a cloud-based application meant to address pedagogical and technological gaps in the Australian government's Digital Education Revolution. In 2012, Weston was appointed to Georgia Tech's professional education executive leadership team as Associate Dean of Learning Systems.