Michael
Barnes
Developer by training. Programmer by proxy. Teacher by trade.
I am an educator with nearly 15 years spent in higher education both as staff and faculty. I have picked up a little bit of everything in my time in academia including front-end, back-end, game, and software development. While I am no expert, I learn fast and love a good challenge. I work mostly with Python, JavaScript, and C++, but have dabbled in many different languages (C#, PHP, and Swift) as well as many different frameworks (node.js, dotnet, and Django) over the years. I have been afforded the opportunity to follow my interests and have taken advantage of that by exploring many different paths including, lately, cybersecurity. I'm an open source advocate and technology evangelist that believes technology should be for everyone and that we are, all of us, better when we work together.
Experience
Position
Faculty - Programming/Mobile Development
I developed the curriculum and teach courses for the Programming/Mobile Development degree as well as managed the nearly $500,000 Workforce Development Grant that funded its development.
Position
Evaluator
I evaluate programming and other IT related assessments for the College of I.T.
Education
Degree
M.S. Information Technology
Degree
B.S. General Studies
Projects
Cave Story Project
The Cave Story Term Project is a project I put together for my Structured Programming / C++ class. It's derived from a project originally found on Reddit by Mark Guerra (u/Limeoats). The project was adopted to fit into a full term academic semester and was used as a supplimentary project to the weekly coursework. A number of videos that included lectures on basic C++ and programming concepts and constructs accompanied the project.
2048 Clone
For my mobile development courses, I had students build a clone of the popular mobile game '2048' called '4096.' The clone was written using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and the Phaser framework. The final product was then converted to an Android APK using Node.js, Cordova, and Android Studio. The project was derived from an existing project by Emanuele Feronato, an Italian developer and programmer. A number of videos that incluced lectures on working with JavaScript and frameworks accompanied the project.
Python repo
Python is one of my favorite languages with which to work. I use it as an introductory language for my programming students for both the programming and cybersecurity degree. Right now, it consists of modified exercises from the book 'Automate the Boring Stuff with Python,' but I plan to add more along in time.
Skills
Front-end
Back-end
Game/Software
Frameworks
Misc
Interests
My day job takes a lot of my time. Weirdly enough teaching is a bit of a full-contact sport. Academics are a rough bunch, it seems. With my spare time, I like to spend it outdoors. I have the good fortune of living in a beautiful part of the country surrounded by a number of lakes, rivers, mountains, and hiking trails that offer a ton of opportunities to be outside out and about.
I also like to dig into new things when I can and am quite crafty. I like diving into new technologies, picking up a good book, and 'game nights' with friends.