Hi, I'm Kirk.
I'm a scholar, web developer, and game designer currently completing my PhD (as a Presidential Doctoral
Fellow)
in Texts & Technology
(with a focus in Games and Interactive Media) at UCF. I'm interested in learning, particularly
learning via games. My research
addresses
historical games and how students learn history using these games. But, maybe you already know all that.
If you made it here, you're probably interested in learning more about me and my work in one of these areas.
Click on any of the icons on the toolbar to filter this website by one of the following:
- Scholarly works, including: teaching philosophy & portfolio, published works, and my Curriculum
Vitae
- Developer projects, including: open-source project contributions, web development portfolio, and my
Resume
- Designer stuff, including: current game projects and my resume.
I've been working in these spaces for a while, and all of these areas overlap, so you'll see items crop up
in
multiple places. Sorry about that, but I promise it'll make sense in a bit.
As I said, I've been working in all three of these areas for a while now; I designed my first tabletop game
over
a decade ago, around the same time I: conducted research on processor design at Texas A&M, coded my first
public
website, and regularly attempted to drink my weight in Dr. Pepper.
My research touches all of these spaces (except the Dr. Pepper); I'm interested in how games can be used to
facilitate learning,
particularly a form of learning that focuses on metacognitive proficiency and literacy within a given
domain.
For me, the chosen domain of study is history. Basically, I'm interested in how playing history games (both
in a
classroom and not) can help students develop an understanding of history itself as a process. Along with
this, I'm looking into how alt-right communities use game mods to inculcate models of history and how
climate change is represented and understood in games. Research in
these
areas rely somewhat on my previously-established skills as a code monkey (developer), amateur game
designer,
and semi-professional strategy gamer. So, you know, it's a good thing I did all that stuff.
Beyond research, I currently teach Server-Side Scripting for UCF's Games and Interactive Media
department and am
the Applications Programmer for the RICHES program in UCF's
History
department. For both of these roles I spend
time teaching—everything from how to use digital tools for historians to how to implement a PHP form.
As the Applications Programmer I'm also responsible for the development of our RICHES Mosaic Inteface
project. I can't talk much about it now, but stay tuned :) In my spare time, I play games (that I turn
around and research), run online roleplaying game sessions (again, research), and contribute to open-source
projects online (which I...yeah. Sensing a theme yet?). Also, sometimes I juggle and try to hug alligators (take that, theme!).
Anyways; welcome!