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Photo of Linda G. Polin, Ph.D.

Linda G. Polin, Ph.D.
Professor of Education and Davidson Endowed Professor

Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles; M.A., University of California, Los Angeles; B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara

Dr. Linda Polin is the Davidson Professor of Education and Technology at the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP), where she teaches in the hybrid (online and face-to-face) doctoral program in educational technology. She teaches courses in learning, technology, and design, as well as in research design. Her research interests focus on learning and knowledge sharing in online communities. Her current research interests focus on knowledge co-construction and sharing, such as learning in informal online communities. Dr. Polin is studying informal yet self-organized learning communities in massively multiplayer online gaming and literature-based role-playing communities on the Web.

Dr. Polin sits on the national advisory board for Cable in the Classroom, and consults with school districts, universities, and software developers. She is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (AMC) and faculty sponsor of the Pepperdine GSEP student chapter of ACM. Dr. Polin is a member of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and past program chair for the AERA Cultural Historical Research Special Interest Group.

Her most recent publications include:

Polin, L. (2008). Graduate professional education from a community of practice perspective: The role of social and technical networking. Chapter 8 in Kimble & Hildreth (Eds.) Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators. Volume 2. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Polin, L. (2007). Teaching the Net Generation. Threshold, Summer. Pp. 13-15, 18-19. [Available at: http://www.ciconline.org/thresholdsummer07 ]

Riel, M. & Polin, L. (2004). Learning communities: Common ground and critical differences in designing technical environments. Chapter 3 in Barab & Kling (eds.) Designing Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning. NY: Cambridge University Press.

Polin, L.G. (2003). Learning in dialogue with a practicing community. Chapter 1 in Duffy & Kirkley (eds.) Learner Centered Theory and Practice in Distance Education: Cases from Higher Education. Mawhaw, NJ: LEA.

Dr. Polin enjoys cycling, constructing with Legos, raising collared lizards, console and online gaming, Pokemon TCG, all things Studio Chibli and geeking. Her current geek adventures entail podcasting and phone blogging.

Contact: linda.polin@pepperdine.edu

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Dennis Palumbo (MA '88) recently published a collection of mystery short stories, titled, From Crime to Crime:Mind-Boggling Tales of Mystery and Murder.