John C. Thomson, Jr., PhD

Education

PhD, Journalism & Mass Communication University of Wisconsin-Madison	August 2013
Minor: Law Dissertation: Social Construction of Copyright: The popular production of communication-based legality Advisor: Dr. Robert Drechsel
MA, Journalism & Mass Communication University of Wisconsin-Madison	December 2004
Emphases: Sociology, Law, Information Studies Thesis: Legal Consciousness of Copyright and the Tension Between Legal and Normative Power Advisor: Dr. Lewis Friedland
BA summa cum laude, Journalism & Mass Comm. University of Minnesota-Twin Cities	August 1999
Minors: Philosophy, Music Performance (Violin) Thesis: The Victory of the Broadcast Media Corporations: How they won the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and defeated the public interest Advisor: Dr. Tsan Kuo Chang

Relevant Work Experience

January 2020 - Present, Lead Solution Engineer, Salesforce.org.
Support higher education institutions on the west coast to envision how the Salesforce platform can enable their digital transformation.

• Technical Executive of sales relationships with large higher education institutions in Northern California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Hawaii, and Alaska
• Regularly prepare and present Salesforce capabilities in a story-based format, based on detailed discovery of business needs
• Leader of the Higher Ed Advancement / fundraising Solution Engineer Focus team (FY 2022). Led a team of peers to migrate a Salesforce demonstration org to a new data model
• Certifications: Salesforce Administrator, Platform App Builder, Education Cloud Consultant, Nonprofit Cloud Consultant, Slack Administrator

August 2018 - January 2020, Associate Director of Operations and Technology, Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) Executive Education.
Manage the Technology and Operations team's efforts to foster the effective delivery of face-to-face Executive Education programs, including the development and support of technologies used by staff and participants for all aspects of the program lifecycle. Specific responsibilities:

• Work with staff of project managers and developers to consistently improve the CRM, SIS, logistics, participant website, and finance technologies in support of 40+ program applications
• Provide timely training, technical support, and custom reports to staff
• Work with school partners such as IT and Marketing to ensure alignment in common efforts, such as data quality and customized application improvements
• Employ design principles to guide the development of administrative systems, such as user interviews and service design
• Coordinate security and compliance efforts such as GDPR and Stanford minimum security standards
• Manage a team of 2 direct reports

August 2014 - August 2018, Instructional Technology Lead, Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB).
Develop and execute a vision for a comprehensive learning technology environment for the Graduate School of Business by administering learning platforms / tools, liaising with learning technology vendors, evaluating and implementing new technologies, and working as a change agent within the school and university. Specific projects include:

• As the GSB's first Learning Platform Administrator, develop the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) as a new service for the school (process and software development)
• Responsible for the operation and support of numerous instructional technologies used by programs across the school
• Engage stakeholders in the LMS working group across 3 departments to develop and improve LMS service for GSB faculty and students
• Establish technologies needed for the GSB's first fully online Executive Education certificate
• Provided technical perspective to a team of learning experience designers and motion artists creating high quality MBA and Exec Ed courses
• Work with learning technology vendors to provide a high level of service for the school (including directing development of features specific to the school's needs)
• Founding member: GSB architecture council as the pillar architect for learning technology, and committee on adverse technology event prevention
• Liaise with other parts of the school, university, and other top business schools to maximize efficiency by aligning efforts
• Consult with faculty and program administrators on the use of learning technology
• Project manager and technical lead for migrating from a school-specific to the university's instance of Canvas, including Python and process development

January 2009 - August 2014, Instructional Technology Consultant, Academic Technology, Division of Information Technology, University of Wisconsin.
Support faculty and campus partners in the planning, implementation, and use of instructional technology. Work with campus partners to plan and implement pilot and production instructional technology projects. Monitor and consult on innovative, and pedagogically-focused uses of technology, especially in the area of assessment. Specific projects include:

• Course management systems
• Desire2Learn: campus lead for ePortfolio pilot, backup site administrator, special focus on assessment tools (gradebook, ePortfolio) and standards-based/API integrations
• Also Moodle, Canvas, and ELMS
• Classroom response systems ("clickers" campus liaison),
• UW-Madison representative on UW-System Learning Technology Development Council,
• Service on ComETS steering committee,
• Liaison between the campus "clicker" user group and the vendor (i>Clicker)
• Planning committee member and webmaster for the Big Learning Event (300+ attendees and prominent speakers)
• Coordinating campus Drupal user group and annual plan the annual Wisconsin Drupal Camp
• Consult with faculty, Vice Provosts, and CIOs on other technologies, as directed
• Supervision of student employees.

December 2003 - December 2008, Project Assistant, Academic Technology, Division of Information Technology, University of Wisconsin.
Supported consultants and faculty in use of technology in teaching including:

• Course management system (migration, user documentation, training, support),
• Web design (including the interactive "Teaching and Learning Excellence" for the Vice Provost of Teaching and Learning),
• Supported the campus instructional technology support group, ComETS, for administrative tasks and website support.
• Assist in the user interface design for the Desire2Learn learning management system
• Researched student-driven note sharing tools
• Consult with faculty on other technologies, as directed

June 1998 - Sept 1999, Student Support, University of Minnesota Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid.
Entered/balanced financial aid awards, created Microsoft Access databases, and tested software for reliability.

Jan 1997 - June 1998, Assistant User Services Specialist, University of Minnesota, Center for the Development of Technological Leadership.
Created and maintained a departmental website, created databases, assisted with individual staff software training, and performed hard/software maintenance.

Teaching Experience

Winter 2003 to August 2014. Instructor for various educational technology courses, Academic Technology, Division of Information Technology, University of Wisconsin.
Lead sessions on Course Management Systems, SCORM-compliant learning objects, and preparing video for online distribution.

Fall 2005. Assistant instructor for "Introduction to Networking," University of Wisconsin School of Library and Information Studies.
Three session, online/distance course on networking technology and architecture.

Fall 2002 and Spring 2003. Teaching Assistant for "Legal and Ethical Issues in Mass Communication," University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Responsible for grading and leading review sessions.

Fall 2001. Teaching Assistant for "Law of Mass Communication," University of Wisconsin School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Responsible for grading and leading all discussion sections.

Fall 2000 and Spring 2001. Teaching Assistant for "Introduction to Mass Communication," University of Wisconsin School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Responsible for grading and leading discussion sections.

Presentations and Publications

"Canvas Business School Roundtable" facilitator, Canvas Instructurecon 2017, 2018.

"A Model for Student-Centered Flipped Courses Deployed in Canvas," Canvas Instructurecon 2017.

"Zero to Canvas in 17 Weeks - Fast Adoption Strategy," Canvas Instructurecon 2015.

"Rubrics: From Creation to Use in Learn@UW" presentation at the University of Wisconsin Teaching and Learning Symposium. 5/22/2013.

"Educational Innovation: Can a New LMS Help Set the Stage?" Educause Midwest Regional Conference, 5/18/2013.

"Intro to Harvard's OpenScholar," Drupal Camp Twin Cities, 5/21/2011.

"Communicating About Issues and Risks for using Cloud Computing in Higher Ed," co-presenter for the CIC (CIC) "Clouds on the Horizon" web conference, 11/18/2009.

"That Thing About Drupal," Drupal Camp Wisconsin, 5/6/2009

"Wikis and Blogs," co-presenter for the UW-System "Wisconsin Technology Enhanced Collaborative Nursing Education" meeting, 5/21/2007.

"Wikis and Blogs," co-presenter on "The Future of Faculty Development" teleconference for the Learning Resources Network (LERN), "Faculty Development Institute," 2/28/2007.

"Network Neutrality," presenter for the "Third Thursday Networking Series" teleconference to members of WiscNet, 11/15/2006.

"Access Control and the DMCA: A legislative history and analysis," Paper presentation at Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Law Division, 8/5/2006.

"Blogs: Uses in an Educational Setting," co-presenter for an online session to faculty and instructional support staff on blogging technology, DoIT-Academic Technology, 9/16/2005.

"Legal Consciousness of Copyright," poster presentation at AEJMC, Communication Technology Policy Division, 8/12/2005.

"Legal Consciousness of Copyright" paper presentation at Big 10 Mini-conference, 4/16/2005.

"Student and Faculty use of IM" presentation to the UW-Madison Community of Educational Technology Support (ComETS), 3/18/05.

Guest Lecturer on copyright, Legal and Ethical issues in Mass Communication class at the University of Iowa. 4/24/2003, 4/29/2003.

"Privatization of the New Communication Channel: Computer Networks and the Internet," web paper on Internet privatization. Fall 2000.

Awards and Certifications

Training

Ideo U - Communicating for Impact certificate (2021)

Demo2Win Certified (2020)

Unicon Executive Education Leadership Academy (2019)

Stanford Manager’s Academy (2019)

Stanford Technology Leadership Program (2016)

Salesforce

Salesforce Administrator

Platform App Builder

Education Cloud Consultant

Nonprofit Cloud Consultant

Slack Administrator

Recognition

Awarded in company-wide competition for outstanding demo in Salesforce myTrailhead learning experience platform (2021)

Selected by vendor (Canvas) to attend meeting of active community members (2017)

"Community of Educational Technology Support Leadership Award," peer selected for the 2nd annual award, 1/11/2013.

Academic Service

Affiliations

• Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (2005-2013):
  • Law Division,
  • Communication Technology Division
• Law and Society Association (2008-2013):
  • Culture, Society, and Intellectual Property Collaborative Research Network
• Phi Beta Kappa
• Kappa Tau Alpha

Publication Review

Journal of Communication Inquiry, 2002-2003.

Conference Service

Reviewer, Educause Midwest conference, Teaching and Learning track, 2010.

Reviewer, AEJMC Law and Policy Division, 2007.

Reviewer and discussant, UW-Madison "Mass Communication Research Center (MCRC) Graduate Student Conference," 2006.

Grant Review

UW-Madison, "Educational Innovation Fund," 2013.

UW-Madison, "Google World," 2011.

 

Knowledge & Interests

Community Organizations and Service

• 2014-Present, Nova Vista Symphony (Violin)
• 2000-2013, Madison Community Orchestra (Violin)
• Provide support for the Drupal, open source content management system via user forums, IRC, and hosting annual Wisconsin Drupal Camps.
• Provided documentation for the Gregarius, open source RSS aggregator

Technologies

• Amateur Radio Operator (General Class)
• Web Design: html, css, xml, json, Python, basic php, Drupal, WordPress
• Multimedia: audio and video editing, learning objects, screen capture, podcasting
• Standards knowledge: LTI, SAML/Shibboleth, SCORM, Caliper/xAPI
• Databases: Microsoft Access, basic MySQL, learning Hadoop ecosystem
• Comfortable on Macintosh OS, Windows, Linux (desktop and basic server administration)
• "John Thomson: Thinking Out Loud" blog archive at johnthomson.org (2005-2015)
• Websites built:
  • Teaching and Learning Excellence
  • Community of Educational Technology Support
  • The Big Learning Event
  • International Zen Dojo of Wisconsin
  • Institute for Zen Leadership
  • Focus Leadership

Languages

• German - limited proficiency
• Tagalog - basic comprehension

References

References available upon request.