A Short Autobiography of Trey Martindale
(for his students, or anyone else interested)
Updated June 2007
Thanks for your time, and please allow me to introduce myself. I am a teacher, and I enjoy teaching a great deal. My goal is to help you learn as much as you can as effectively as possible, mostly about instructional design and technology. I'm committed to helping you become the best learner, professional, citizen, and person that you desire to be.
A few generations ago in the early 1900s, part of my family lived in western North Carolina, where they were farmers. My great-grandfather decided to move the family to Texas. There my maternal grandparents met and married, and then moved to Littlefield, Texas, where they remained. Grandfather owned and operated a cotton gin for the many cotton farmers in the area. I grew up in Littlefield, about 35 miles northwest of Lubbock in the northern panhandle of Texas--an area known as the South Plains.
My first job ever was in eighth grade. I worked part time at Quality Printing, where my main job was to clean up, and help produce our most important product -- the Littlefield Wildcat football game program. Football is a big deal in west Texas, as it is in many locales. I played some football (mostly watched from the sidelines) in junior high and high school, but had more fun with with basketball and tennis.
I still love to play basketball. I like to play tennis too, but it's much easier and more convenient to find a pick-up basketball game than a tennis match. Though lately my knees and back are really sore after playing basketball, so I've given it up. I'm looking for a new sport--maybe softball or golf.
In 1989 I earned a bachelors degree in secondary education from Texas Tech University, with teaching fields in biology and physical education. I worked a year with high school students as a student teacher and than as a youth minister, then taught two years at Texas A&M University while getting a masters degree in exercise physiology. I returned a few years later to Texas Tech to teach and study for a doctorate in instructional technology, with an emphasis in multimedia instructional development.
I have been a teacher for many years in several environments. One interesting job was teaching many different physical education courses at Texas A&M University, including country and western dance. Dancing is great fun for me, so I couldn't believe I was actually getting paid to teach it. I also taught running, race walking, weight training, volleyball, tennis, racquetball, badminton, and total fitness.
I served two years as a cardiac rehabilitation specialist and exercise technician on the staff of a large teaching hospital, the University of Texas Health Center at Tyler, and that was the beginning and end of my medical career. It turns out I get woozy easily, even watching "ER". But it was a great opportunity to design patient education materials, teach cardiac and pulmonary patients, develop exercise prescriptions, and supervise patient rehabilitation.
While I was in Tyler I was the front man for a band that played for our church. This was great fun, and stayed in that hospital job longer than I preferred because I enjoyed leading the band so much. I'm no great guitarist or singer, but I can do both well enough to lead a group. Some of my best friends came from the two years in that group.
After the cardiac work in 1995 I served one year in Belize, Central America as an interim pastor and administrator for four small churches. This was a great experience and opportunity, and I've been back to Belize three times since with church groups, to lead youth programs and do church and school construction.
Later I moved back to Texas and taught instructional technology at Texas Tech University while pursuing a doctorate. At Tech I worked for three years as an instructional designer on a large grant project funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Our team designed computer-based professional development for teachers of visually impaired children. This was a great project that resulted in six videotapes (and eventually DVDs) and eight interactive software programs that were distributed nationally.
In 1998 I accepted a faculty appointment at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, where I served on the faculty for four years. Pensacola was great, and I have many fond memories of friends there. The beaches are absolutely beautiful. One UWF highlight was traveling to Taiwan to recruit a group of 20 students for our doctoral program in instructional technology. I served as the primary instructor and liaison for these students for two years, which was great fun. During my time there we developed one of the first fully online masters degree programs in the country. My wife's parents have recently retired to Pensacola, so now we get to see friends and visit family in the same trip.
My wonderful wife Kim and I met in Pensacola, and were married January 1, 2000. I was 33 and she was 29, so we married a little later in life than usual. Before we moved to Greenville, Kim was the director of missions (local and international) at our church in Pensacola. Kim lived her first 18 years in Indonesia (map), and we have been able to visit her family there three times in the last five years, which has been fascinating. Istri saya chantik dan pandai sekali. That means my wife is very beautiful and intelligent (in Indonesian).
Kim's parents were missionaries and professors at a seminary on Java for over 30 years, and have recently retired and moved to Pensacola. They return to Indonesia occasionally with short term mission teams. Recently they have focused on tsunami relief in Aceh (Sumatra). Kim has a bachelors degree from Auburn University in anthropology, and a masters degree in historical and theological foundations from New Orleans Baptist Seminary.
In April 2004 our first child, Lauren Faith, was born. She is wonderful, and a joy every day, and we are so thankful to the Lord that she is healthy, after a rough start and emergency delivery. Many, many people were praying for Lauren. Our second child, Grace Elizabeth was born in July of this 2005, and she came about a month early. After a few days in the ICU, everything was fine and she came home. So we are in the midst of bringing up babies.
Professionally, I'm doing what I hoped to do. I enjoy teaching and research, and for many years wanted to be a professor. I relish grappling with ideas, issues, epistemology, and language. I am very involved in our field (instructional design and technology), particularly through the professional organization AECT. the Association for Educational Communications and Technology. I was an officer for several years in the Design and Development Division, the largest division in the organization. I'm currently serving a three year term on the national Board of Directors of AECT. AECT is the original professional association for instructional design and technology.
As a scholar, I'm currently conducting research on exemplary online learning resources, and the properties therein. I'm also writing about online learning and teaching, and emerging tools like blogs, wikis, and forms of social software. More about my writing can be found on my research page.
I like playing several sports, and have always enjoyed some friendly competition. I like reading and listening to books and lectures, lately about philosophy and the nature of truth and meaning. I enjoy playing the acoustic guitar and singing. Kim and I like to go to the beach as often as possible. We have plans to camp, but they keep getting put off. We try to get to some concerts and recitals occasionally, and we like a good movie. (Here are some of my favorite movies).
We like to hang out at bookstores. We also enjoy spending time with students, particularly international students who often do not have any local friends or family. Kim has many international friends.
My mom is in West Texas, and my sister is in San Antonio, and Kim's younger brother is in Lexington, MS, and her parents are in Pensacola, so we spend some weekends and holidays visiting family. Her older brother and family are in Indonesia. We have visited them a few times, and hope to do so again soon, but babies make that a bit more complicated.
That was a pretty long introduction. I look forward to getting to know you, and helping you reach your educational goals. I am here to be of service to you.
