JordanPatton.com

Hello everyone! I just thought I would take a moment to re-introduce myself. Recently, my blog was added to the Student Life Blogs for the Georgia Tech College of Computing. As a result, I think I have a lot of new readers that have no idea who I am. My name is Jordan Patton, and I am the sole author of this blog.

Classes

I’m also a Master’s student in Human-Computer Interaction at Georgia Tech. As a result, I get to take some excellent classes, many of which are a lot of fun! Some others (as usual) are not so great, but you find a way to get through them. For the most part, I’ve really enjoyed my classes. I’ve included a summary of my coursework below:

• Fall 2007
  • CS 6750 - Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction
  • CS 8803 - Usability & Accessibility of Online Media
  • PSYC 6018 - Research Design (and Cognitive Psychology)
• Spring 2008 (this semester)
  • CS 6455 - User Interface Design & Evaluation (aka Empirical Methods)
  • CS 7460 - Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
  • CS 8903 - Independent Study (under the Electronic Learning Communities [ELC] group)

Research

This semester, I’ve started work on a research project in the area of online communities. I can’t give you too many details, partly because it could screw up the project. (Uh oh…) After speaking with Dr. Amy Bruckman several times last semester, she offered me the chance to perform research with her ELC group on an independent project. As you can see, I jumped at this opportunity, and I’m currently working with Dr. Bruckman and one of her Ph.D. students. The project is a lot of fun (yes, fun research; imagine that, right?), and I really appreciate this opportunity to learn about online communities from all of the members of the ELC lab. If you get the chance to work with them, don’t pass it up!

Family

I live in the Tenth and Home apartment complex with my super-fantastic-okay-wow-number1-fun-excellent wife, Sarah. (No seriously, she’s really amazing. I had never planned to get married, but I married Sarah. That should tell you something, but it’s a whole ‘nother story.) My other family is spread pretty far and wide, and there are “factions” all over the place:

• Covington, GA (the base camp)
• Savannah, GA (the original base camp)
• Augusta, GA (the child care center)
• St. Louis, MS (the doctors)
• Los Angeles, CA (my actress aunt, her director husband, and their stand-up comedian son. No, seriously, folks!)

…and on and on the list goes, but I think that’s enough. My wife is actually Scottish, and it took me 3 months to understand her parents. Now that I do, however, I’m totally “in” with the Scottish crowd, and it really helps with my popularity at parties (woo hoo!). Her immediate family reside in Norcross, GA, but the rest of them still live in the UK. (In Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Manchester, in case you’re wondering!)

Sarah and I in Central Park, New York

Other

I used to be an Industrial Engineer, but it wasn’t really the right fit for me. Near the end of my IE program, I took a class called Human-Integrated Systems. This is basically the IE version of Human Factors, Ergonomics, or HCI. It really sparked my interest in the field, which is part of what motivated me to join this program.

As far as this blog goes, I usually cover topics related to upcoming technology, especially web-based applications and online communities. I’m a big fan of using technology for entertainment and education, so you’ll probably see that in my writing. I also talk about some completely random stuff from time to time, such as my new chair. (It really is a great chair!) Topics I won’t cover include such things as politics, relationship advice, or just random complaints or rambling. (You can get that everywhere else.) If you’d like to know more about me, please read my original introduction post or leave me a comment. Thanks for reading!