JordanPatton.com

Hello! My name is Jordan Patton, and I am the author of this blog (JordanPatton.com). If you’re a friend or family member, I hope you’ll follow along as I cover a wide range of topics that I think are important. If you’ve just wandered in, please feel free to browse, search, scan, or even read my posts. (Very few people actually “read” anything on the internet. Strange, huh?)

Besides being the author of this blog, I am also a student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Currently, I’m studying Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) as a Master’s student. At this point, you’re probably wondering “What is HCI?”.  That’s a very good question, as HCI is pretty hard to define. For starters, it’s a cross-disciplinary subject that includes Computer Science, Digital Media, Psychology, and Sociology. It’s about any part of a technology “system” that interacts with the user. Want some examples? You got ‘em:

• The interface on a web-based application, such as Gmail or The Facebook.
• The display on your car’s radio.
• The dashboard in your car.
• The windows, icons, and cursor in Microsoft Windows.
• The dock in Mac OS X.
• Your cell phone.
• Systems that bring people together, such as MySpace, The Facebook, and World of Warcraft.

These are just a few examples to give you an idea, but as you can see Human-Computer Interaction is a very broad subject! It’s so broad, in fact, that I’m still exploring the field to make sure I pick the path that’s “right” for me. Right now, I’m thinking I would like to study online communities that promote entertainment and education. (Think Wikipedia, World of Warcraft, etc.) This semester (Spring 2008), I’m working with the Electronic Learning Communities to learn more about the field.

In much longer-term plans, I am interested in becoming a professor at a technology university. I would like to do research, but I am also very interested in helping other people get a great education. (I believe that bad education is the source of many societal problems, and better education is the key solving them!) My own education was not very fun or easy, but I think that making the academic world a better place would be a huge step toward making the whole world much better.

A few of the other key points about me include:

• I am married to the only person I would ever marry, Sarah Patton.
• I live in the city of Atlanta, which is rapidly moving up in the United States.
• I used to be an Industrial Engineer, which wasn’t the right fit for me.
• I was once a martial arts instructor, but that was a very long time ago.

Anything else you want to know? Feel free to leave a comment below! Stay tuned for further updates.