2008 Dr. Linda Null: First Penn State Harrisburg Professor to Become Teaching Fellow and Earn Excellence in Teaching Award

Dr. Linda Null, associate professor of computer science, won the Teaching Fellow Award for Teaching Excellence from the Penn State Alumni Association in 2008 after previously earning the Excellence in Teaching award in 2005. She was the first Penn State Harrisburg professor to earn both awards and only the third professor in the entire Penn State system to do so.

The purpose of the Teaching Fellow award is to honor distinguished teaching and to encourage and provide incentive for excellence in teaching; it could be awarded to any professor teaching at any Penn State campus. The Excellence in Teaching award has a similar purpose, but is awarded by the individual Penn State campuses.

Dr. Null created opportunities for her students to gain hands-on experiences in computer science. For example, she incorporated total quality management into her classroom to provide students with a sense of ownership over their learning and created multiple education software packages to help students acquire hands-on experience to understand complex concepts. In fall 2000, she coached the winning team of 136 teams at “Battle of the Brains,” a competition in which teams have five hours to solve 10 problems.

When nominating her for the Excellence in Teaching award, one of Dr. Null’s students said, “I am thankful and fortunate to have been challenged in Dr. Null’s classes so that I can walk away more prepared, more knowledgeable, and more confident.”

Education

• Ph.D. Computer Science, Iowa State University
• M.S. Computer Science, Iowa State University
• M.S. School Computer Studies, Northwest Missouri State University
• M.S.Ed. Mathematics, Northwest Missouri State University
• B.S.Ed. Mathematics and English, Northwest Missouri State University

Publications

• The Essentials of Computer Organization and Architecture