Personal
Brock grew up on a mountain north
of the Golden Gate Bridge. Originally a haven for artists
and writers, Mill Valley, his home town, is now a chic
Yuppie burb--"too expensive for professors," he says. As an
undergraduate majoring in Ecology, Brock focused his studies
on the evolution of human behavior and the organization of
natural communities. He developed and patented a simulation
game for teaching the principles of evolution by natural
selection. Widely used in the US, it's still sold in Europe
under the name Evolutionspeil.
Brock taught elementary school in
California for four years, experimenting with open classroom
methodologies, token economies, outdoor education, and drama
programs for the gifted. He moved to New York in 1974 where
he worked for F. Allen Grant Associates as a training
consultant, specializing in office communications and word
processing. He managed training programs for a large
corporate client and co-produced multi-image
presentations.
On his return to California, Brock
worked as a media specialist for a large school district
where he produced slide/sound presentations and videotapes
and served as assistant to the Director of the Instructional
Media Center. At one point, he managed a project designed to
change eating behaviors in school cafeterias, and developed
motivational products that included comic books and puppet
shows.
Brock's doctoral studies focused on
the psychology of communication and instruction, theories of
instructional design, and the applications of computers and
interactive video to instructional problems. His
dissertation was entitled The Effects of System-Assigned Learning
Strategies and Hierarchical Displays on Acquisition of
Coordinate Concepts: An Exploratory Study Utilizing a
Computer-Based Research Tool.
Brock joined the SDSU Educational
Technology Faculty in 1982. He has three grown children and
lives in a small cottage in Kensington with his wife Barbara Allen,
College of Education Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, and their dog,
Darwin.
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