PROVENZO, Eugene (F., Jr.) 1949-

PERSONAL: Born December 2, 1949, in Buffalo, NY; son of Eugene F. (a social studies teacher and high school principal) and Therese (an elementary school principal; maiden name, King) Provenzo; married Asterie Baker (a writer), December 24, 1973. Education: University of Rochester, B.A. (with honors), 1972; Washington University, M.A., 1974, Graduate Institute of Education, Ph.D., 1976. Hobbies and other interests: Designing toys, cooking, assemblage/sculpture, woodworking.

ADDRESSES: Home—4921 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Coral Gables, FL 33146. Office—School of Education, P.O. Box 248065, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, faculty member, 1976—, full professor of education, 1985—, research coordinator and associate dean for research of School of Education, 1986-88; writer.

AWARDS, HONORS: Newberry Library fellow, 1978; Distinguished Young Leader in Education Award, Phi Delta Kappa, 1981; National Endowment for the Humanities fellow, 1984 and 1991; Professor of the Year Award, University of Miami, 1984; Man of the Year Award, University of Miami Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa, 1986; Freshman Outstanding Teaching Award, University of Miami, 1991; Outstanding Book on the Subject of Human Rights in the United States, Gustavus Meyers Center, 1992, for Religious Fundamentalism and American Education: The Battle for the Public Schools; Outstanding Book in the Field of State and Local History, American Association for State and Local History, 1993, for Farm Security Administration Photographs of Florida; Portfolio Award Winner, 1998, for Learning Online: The Voyage of Apollo 11: Mission to the Moon.

WRITINGS:

(With David A. Young) The History of the St. LouisCar Company, Howell-North Books (Berkeley, CA), 1978.

(With Betty Hall and others) The Historian As Detective, CEMREL, Inc., 1979.

(With Arlene Brett) The Complete Block Book, photographs by Michael Carlebach, Syracuse University Press (Syracuse, NY), 1983.

(With wife, Asterie Baker Provenzo) Pursuing thePast: Oral History, Photography, Family History, and Cemeteries, Volume 1, Addison-Wesley (Menlo Park, CA), 1983.

(With Peter A. Zorn, Jr., and Asterie Baker Provenzo) Education on the Forgotten Frontier: A Centennial History of the Founding of the Dade County Public Schools, Dade County Public Schools (Miami, FL), 1985.

(With H. Warren Button) History of Education andCulture in America, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1983, revised edition, 1989.

(Editor and author of introduction, with mother, Therese M. Provenzo) Mary H. Lewis, An Adventure with Children, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 1985.

Beyond the Gutenberg Galaxy: Microcomputers and the Emergence of Post-Typographic Culture, Teachers College Press (New York, NY), 1986.

An Introduction to Education in American Society, C. E. Merrill (Columbus, OH), 1986.

(With Marilyn Cohn and Robert Kottkamp) To Be aTeacher: Cases, Concepts, Observation Guides, Random House (New York, NY), 1987.

Religious Fundamentalism and American Education:The Battle for the Public Schools, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1990.

Video Kids: Making Sense of Nintendo, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1991.

(With Arlene Brett and Robin Moore) The CompletePlayground Book, Syracuse University Press (Syracuse, NY), 1993.

(With Michael Carlebach) Farm Security Administration Photographs of Florida, University Press of Florida (Gainesville, FL), 1993.

(Editor, with Paul Farber and Gunilla Holm) Schooling in the Light of Popular Culture, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1994.

(With Arlene Brett) Adaptive Technology for SpecialHuman Needs, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1995.

(With Sandra H. Fradd) Hurricane Andrew, the PublicSchools, and the Rebuilding of Community, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1995.

The Educator's Brief Guide to Computers in theSchools, Eye on Education (Princeton, NJ), 1996.

Schoolteachers and Schooling: Ethoses in Conflict, Ablex Pub. (Norwood, NJ), 1996.

The Educator's Brief Guide to the Internet and theWorld Wide Web, Eye on Education (Larchmont, NY), 1998.

(With Arlene Brett and Gary N. McCloskey) Computers, Curriculum, and Cultural Change: An Introduction for Teachers, Erlbaum (Mahwah, NJ), 1999.

The Internet and the World Wide Web for PreserviceTeachers, Allyn & Bacon (Boston, MA), 1999, revised edition published as The Internet and the World Wide Web for Teachers, 2002.

(With Doug Gotthoffer) Quick Guide to the Internet for Education, Allyn & Bacon (Boston, MA), 2000.

(With Doug Gotthoffer) Allyn & Bacon Education on the Net, Allyn & Bacon (Boston, MA), 2001.

(Editor) W. E. B. DuBois, Du Bois on Education, Rowman and Littlefield (Lanham, MD), 2002.

Teaching, Learning, and Schooling: A Twenty-firstCentury Perspective, Allyn & Bacon (Boston, MA), 2002.

(With Asterie Baker Provenzo) In the Eye of Hurricane Andrew, University Press of Florida (Gainesville, FL), 2002.

WITH CHARLES T. MANGRUM

Learning Online: The Voyage of Apollo 11: Mission to the Moon, Curriculum Associates, Inc. (North Billerica, MA), 1996.

(And with Mykel J. Mangrum) Take Five: Daily Classroom Activities in Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Humanities, Curriculum Associates, Inc. (North Billerica, MA), 1996.

Thinking Like a Mathematician: Learning How Mathematicians Think and Work, Curriculum Associates, Inc. (North Billerica, MA), 1998.

Thinking Like a Writer: Learning How Writers Think and Work, Curriculum Associates, Inc. (North Billerica, MA), 1998.

Thinking Like a Historian: Learning How HistoriansThink and Work, Curriculum Associates, Inc. (North Billerica, MA), 1998.

Thinking Like a Scientist: Learning How ScientistsThink and Work, Curriculum Associates, Inc. (North Billerica, MA), 1998.

FOR CHILDREN; WITH WIFE, ASTERIE BAKER PROVENZO

The Historian's Toybox: Children's Toys from the PastYou Can Make Yourself, illustrated by Peter A. Zorn, Jr., Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1979, reprinted as Easy-to-Make Old-Fashioned Toys, Dover (New York, NY), 1989.

Rediscovering Astronomy, illustrated by Peter A. Zorn, Jr., Oak Tree (San Diego, CA), 1979.

Rediscovering Photography, illustrated by Peter A. Zorn, Jr., Oak Tree (La Jolla, CA), 1980.

Play It Again: Historic Board Games You Can Make and Play Yourself, illustrated by Peter A. Zorn, Jr., Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1981, reprinted as Favorite Board Games You Can Make and Play, Dover (New York, NY), 1990.

Forty-seven Easy-to-Do Science Experiments, illustrated by Peter A. Zorn, Jr., Dover (New York, NY), 1989.

FOR CHILDREN; WITH PETER A. ZORN, JR., AND ASTERIE BAKER PROVENZO

Spad XIII and Spad VII, Crown (New York, NY), 1982.

Fokker Dr. 1 Triplanes, Crown (New York, NY), 1982.

The Ford Trimotor 5-AT, Crown (New York, NY), 1982.

The Spirit of Louis Ryan NYP, Crown (New York, NY), 1982.

Also editor, with Paul Farber and Gunilla Holm, of Education and Popular Culture in the United States, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY). Work represented in anthologies, including Educational Equity: Integrating Equity into Perspective Teacher Education, Eric Clearinghouse on Teacher Education (Washington, DC), 1981; Allied in Educational Reform, edited by Jerome M. Rosow and Robert Zager, Jossey-Bass (San Francisco, CA), 1989; and Literacy Online: The Promise (and Peril) of Reading and Writing with Computers, edited by Myron Tuman, University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1991. Coeditor, "Education and Culture Series," State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1990—. Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals.

WORK IN PROGRESS: At work on several titles dealing with computers, technology, and media, as well as the history of education, and cultural literacy.

SIDELIGHTS: Eugene Provenzo is a professor at the University of Miami School of Education and the author of a wide variety of books on history, technology, culture, and education. He has specialized in the academic uses of computers and the Internet for online studying, publishing books such as Beyond the Gutenberg Galaxy: Microcomputers and the Emergence of Post-Typographic Culture; Computers, Curriculum, and Cultural Change: An Introduction for Teachers; The Educator's Brief Guide to the Internet and the World Wide Web; Quick Guide to the Internet for Education; and The Internet and the World Wide Web for Preservice Teachers. Working with his wife, Asterie Baker Provenzo, and with Peter A. Zorn, Jr., Provenzo has also written several how-to children's books, including Play It Again: Historic Board Games You Can Make and Play Yourself, Forty-seven Easy-to-Do Science Experiments, and The Historian's Toybox: Children's Toys from the Past You Can Make Yourself.

Born in 1949, in Buffalo, New York, Provenzo comes from a family of educators. His father was a social studies teacher and high school principal, and his mother an elementary school principal. He attended the University of Rochester and later earned his doctorate from Washington University's Graduate Institute of Education with his thesis titled Education and the Aesopic Tradition. Provenzo once commented: "While I was in graduate school, I focused primarily on historical and philosophical training, but I also received extensive background in ethnography and field-based research, as well as archival preservation and exhibit work. My career as a researcher has been interdisciplinary in nature."

Provenzo joined the faculty of the University of Miami in 1976, and became a full professor in the School of Education in 1985. "Throughout my work," Provenzo once said, "the primary focus has been on education as a social and cultural phenomenon. A particularly important concern has been the role of the teacher in American society. Cross-disciplinary methods, as well as philosophical questions related to the process of inquiry and the sociology of knowledge, are also of primary interest to me. In addition, I have followed personal interests related to the impact of computers on contemporary culture and education, local and regional history, and the history of toys, toy design, and evaluation."

Writing on academic affairs, Provenzo has also helped edit books, such as the 1994 Schooling in the Light of Popular Culture, an "excellent entry," as Choice's F. X. Russo put it, in the growing body of work that attempts to "sensitize educators and the public to the impact of cultural forces in the school." In a less academic vein, Provenzo coauthored Farm Security Administration Photographs of Florida, a "superbly crafted work," according to Augustus Burns in a Social Forces review. Burns went on to note that the authors "have produced a book that faithfully reflects both the achievement and the craftsmanship of the talented men and women who made these remarkable photographs." By cataloguing and contextualizing these Depression-age photos, Provenzo helped to save such images from becoming a "rural world lost," according to Burns. I. Wilmer Counts, reviewing the same title in Journalism History, felt that Provenzo and coauthor Michael Carlebach "make excellent use of their text along with the images to give us a solid words-and-pictures description of Florida during the Great Depression."

"As a professor and educational researcher," Provenzo once commented, "I am committed to relating theory to practice. I have worked closely with schools and teachers, and I consider myself a 'scholar-teacher,' working to advance the profession." In his educational works, Provenzo has been particularly interested in the impact of computers on learning. His Adaptive Technology for Special Human Needs examines the uses of new computer-based technologies for the learning needs of people with disabilities, introducing both hardware and software that educators might use. Additionally, he raises issues about affordability and equality in the use of such technologies in his study. K. Lam, writing in Choice, felt the book was "easy to read, with photographic inserts showing some of the devices mentioned in the text." Provenzo provides a basic introductory text with Computers, Curriculum, and Cultural Change: An Introduction for Teachers. Coauthored with Arlene Brett and Gary N. McCloskey, Computers, Curriculum, and Cultural Change is, according to B. Deever, writing in Choice, "a welldone introduction for undergraduates and/or educators." Deever also praised the book for its "explication of computing and educational technology."

With The Internet and the World Wide Web for Preservice Teachers and its second edition, The Internet and the World Wide Web for Teachers, Provenzo supplies not only an introduction to using such Web-related materials in the classroom, but also provides an extensive list of quality, educational links. He introduces the concept of the Internet and the World Wide Web, gives the basics of navigating online, and suggests how the Web can be used in the classroom and blended with curriculum. His list of recommended sites for online work includes libraries, reference destinations, museums, and schools. Reviewing the first edition of this book in Book Report, Donna Miller noted that it would "be helpful, not only for those entering the teaching field, but also for veteran educators."

Provenzo's interests have also led him into a critical social and cultural analysis of video games for children in Video Kids: Making Sense of Nintendo. In his capacity as an educator, he has testified before the U.S. Senate twice on the subject of video games and children. In a People interview with Don Sider, Provenzo noted that video games, good or bad, "are here to stay; they're increasingly as much a part of children's lives as TV." And like television, Provenzo recommends that such games be used in "moderation." Video games can be "powerful teaching tools" at their best, as he told Sider. The good games can, according to Provenzo, "fulfill a need for adventure and fantasy . . . [and] help kids role-play and problem-solve." The downside, of course, is that many games rely on violence and sexuality to attract young participants. Provenzo recommended that parents "know what game your children are playing." Parents might even play the game with their children at first. "If you have a problem with the game," he told Sider in his interview, "discuss what you like and don't like with your kids. It doesn't take a lot of time, and it's worth it."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 15, 1980, p. 1337.

Book Report, November, 1999, Donna Miller, review of The Internet and the World Wide Web for Preservice Teachers, p. 82.

Choice, January, 1995, F. X. Russo, review of Schooling in the Light of Popular Culture, p. 841; January, 1996, K. Lam, review of Adaptive Technology for Special Human Needs, p. 841; September, 1999, B. Deever, review of Computers, Curriculum, and Cultural Change: An Introduction for Teachers, p. 202.

Journalism History, spring, 1994, I. Wilmer Counts, review of Farm Security Administration Photographs of Florida, p. 38.

Journal of Popular Culture, fall, 1994, Ray Browne, review of Schooling in the Light of Popular Culture, pp. 234-235.

Library Journal, November 1, 1979, p. 2337.

New Statesman and Society, December 20, 1991, p. 49.

New York Times Book Review, December 22, 1991, p. 2.

People, October 16, 2002, Don Sider, "Virtual Vice? This Holiday Season, Some Video Games Come Wrapped in Sex, Gore, and Controversy," p. 79.

School Library Journal, October, 1981, p. 153.

Social Forces, September, 1995, Augustus Burns, review of Farm Security Administration Photographs of Florida, pp. 342-344.

Teachers College Record, winter, 1997, Susan Moore Johnson, review of Schoolteachers and Schooling: Ethoses in Conflict, pp. 426-428.

Times Educational Supplement, November 29, 1991.

ONLINE

University of Miami School of Education Web site,http://www.education.miami.edu/ (March 20, 2003), faculty page of Eugene Provenzo.