Photo of Greg O'Toole

Greg
O'Toole
B.Sc., M.A., Ph.D.

Part-time Adjunct Instructor
Additional Title(s)
Web Technologist, Strategic Advisor
Education
Ph.D., Media & Communication, European Graduate School & University of Denver
M.A., Emergent Digital Practices, University of Denver
Post-Bacc. Studies, Digital Design, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
B.Sc., Communication Studies, Bradley University
Biography

I've been working with digital media and web technology since 1992, prior to any real commercially available web browsers. I have been at Penn State since 2009, working in research and education. I built this website you are on right now along the way -- a Drupal 7 site (it was very modern at the time!) with a custom theme. I served at University Park as an Assistant Teaching Professor in IST, and also now I work with companies all over the world to build enterprise digital experiences on the web and continue to teach and work with students in my favorite and value-driven courses.

My professional work focuses on enterprise-level technical and creative development and strategy using open source technologies and critical approaches to media studies as a process for building quality digital experiences. As a Sr. Web Developer, Cloud Architect, Professor, Technical Account Manager, and Author, I have helped build applications that are used by millions of people every day.

This experience fuels the courses I've authored and teach for IST including:

  • IST-250 Introduction to Web Design and Development
  • IST-256 Programming for the Web
  • IST-402 Special Topics - The Assembled Web
  • IST-331 Human Centered Design & Development
  • SRA-211 Threat of Terrorism & Crime
  • GAME-140 Gaming and Interactive Media
  • GAME-220 Introduction to Game Design
Research Interests
  • Modular Digital Design, Digital Media, Ui/Ux, user-centered, HCI
  • Drupal/Open source web application development and community
  • Cloud Computing, AWS
  • Web software development lifecycle (automation, testing, and deployment)
  • Cyber security, WAFs, Web-user data profiling
  • Info-Media Literacy
Research Keywords
Drupal, Open Source, Cloudflare, Enterprise, Cloud Computing, Web Development