Spotlight: SPC professor Darlene Westberg ? St. Petersburg College ...

Professor, College of Computer and Information Technology

Darlene Westberg

Darlene Westberg was nominated for the Center of Excellence for Teaching and Learning (CETL) Faculty Spotlight because of her participation on numerous college-wide committees and dedication to student learning.

Westberg was born in Illinois in a small town west of Chicago where her father served as mayor. The family moved to Madeira Beach when she was 13, where she enrolled at Madeira Beach Junior High and then Seminole High School. She dropped out of school in her junior year. Eight years later, she received a high school diploma from Dixie Hollins night school.

She received her Associate in Arts, Associate in Science in computer science, and a certificate in microcomputer applications from St. Petersburg Junior College and a bachelor?s degree in management and computers from Eckerd College. She received her master?s in instructional technology from the University of South Florida.

CETL caught up with Westberg to learn about teaching computer programming and Web development.

CETL: How did you get started in Computer Science / Instructional Technology?

Westberg: When I was going to school here my Introduction to Business teacher said, ?If you want to make money in the 80?s you need to learn computers.? I had two teenagers and no child support?I needed to match my income as a waitress. A schoolmate of mine was the student assistant in the Computer Science department and convinced me to take Introduction to Computers and Programming. Later, I replaced her as the student assistant in the CS department.

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CETL: What prepared you for your faculty role?

Westberg: Tutoring students in computer programming as the student assistant helped prepare me to teach. I also worked at Honeywell on Trident Missile Memory Stacks, Mars Rover, Space Shuttle Main Engine Controls and Single Subscriber Terminals (encryption) and was promoted to Software Quality Engineer. I also taught Macintosh and PC applications at Raytheon for three years. Just before coming to SPJC, I was at Polk Community College as Coordinator of the Teaching Learning Computer Centers for two years.

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CETL: What new developments are happening in your field?

Westberg: Windows 8 and Visual Studio 2012 are now available.

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CETL: What are your biggest challenges in preparing students in your field?

Westberg: Keeping up with technology is a constant challenge. Since I started as a full time professor (I was an adjunct for 16 years), I have taught six versions of Visual Studio and as I mentioned, the seventh is now out.

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CETL: What do your students seem to appreciate or enjoy about your class?

Westberg: I demonstrate code in face-to-face classes that is NOT in the textbook. The students follow along and I help with any syntax errors. I create errors on purpose to show them common pitfalls.

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CETL: What teaching strategy do you find effective?

Westberg: Giving students mneumonics for programming logic exercises.

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CETL: What are you most excited about regarding your faculty role?

Westberg: I am so very thankful for the opportunity to pay forward what I received from St. Petersburg College!

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CETL: What can students do to prepare for a career in your field?

Westberg: Write code, code and more code?

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Source: http://newsspc.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/spotlight-spc-professor-darlene-westberg/

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