Tim Trainor has taught Computer Information Systems and Psychology at Muskegon Community College for more than 33 years and is the author or co-author of over 18 computer textbooks. Tim received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Western Michigan University and a Doctorate degree from the University of Kansas. Dr. Trainor’s areas of expertise are educational technology, applied psychology and the integration of technology into schools and homes.
Professional Résumé
E-Mail: Tim.Trainor@ttdk.com
Dr. T.'s current areas of interest:
Gwythdarian, LLC
One of the spin-offs of my work in developing an Entrepreneur degree in Web Game Development was the formation of Gwythdarian, LLC with Jim Landes. Our company designs and develops browser-based games. The first offering is StariumXCV a high context, persistent massively multiplayer strategic role playing game set in the Milky Way galaxy. This game is being developed by a group of skilled writers, programmers, artists and designers who have come together to create amazing entertainment experiences. Everyone involved in this project is working for their own royalty share of the net profits once the game is released.
Entrepreneurship
I believe my community needs to promote the idea that people can work for themselves. As part of Muskegon Community College’s faculty, we realized that a two-year college was perfectly positioned to help do it--see Culture of Entrepreneurship. The resulting collaboration of Dave Stradal, Dan Bialas, Teresa Sturrus and others implemented a new Entrepreneur Associates of Applied Science degree. One of the first degrees to be approved was the Entrepreneur AAS in Web Game Development. Five other degrees in Family Child Care, Web Site Development, Personal Computer Maintenance, Graphic Design in Display Advertising and Computer Networking Services were approved at the same time.
Instructional Design
The draw of technology to me has always been its potential to improve our lives, especially how we educate ourselves. I have used technology to teach college classes online and developed multimedia materials for on campus courses. Experience has taught me successful strategies for integrating technology into the classroom using my understanding of how we learn and a realization that people learn in different ways.
Life Coach
As a teacher with a PhD in Developmental Psychology, I have been a life coach all my professional life. Over the years I have helped my Psychology 102 students change behaviors ranging from smoking and weight control to nail biting, excessive driving speeds, saving money along with other personal behaviors.
Creating Easy to Use and Error Free Web pages
I have a passion for helping people create web pages that use error free xhtml coding and cascading stylesheets. After having taught and written about Web page design from the ground up using just a text editor, browser and WC3 validator, I enjoy reading well written code and take pleasure in finding logic and syntax errors in web page coding.