University of Mobile - Areas of Study

Mr. Leo Denton
Acting Chair and Assistant Professor
Computer Information Systems
School of Business
Office Complex 105
ldenton@mail.umobile.edu
(251) 442-2573

Office hours:
Monday 8:00 to 11:00 A.M.
Wednesday 8:00 to 11:00 A.M.
Friday 8:00 to 10:00 A.M. and 2:00 to 4:00 P.M.

Education:
   B.A., Philosophy
     - Pontifical College Josephinum, 1978
   M.S., Computer and Information Sciences
     - University of South Alabama, 1997
   Doctoral studies in progress (A.B.D.),
     Instructional Development and Design
     - University of South Alabama

Prior Professional Experience:
   University of South Alabama
     Computer and Information Sciences Instructor
     - January 2000 to August 2006
   QMS-Minolta
     Associate Software Engineer
     Web administrator
     E-Mail system administrator
     Database administrator
     - March 1997 to January 2000
   Catholic Social Services
     Program coordinator (respect life program)
     Software engineer and database manager
     Statistician
     - May 1987 to May 1997

Educational philosophy:
Education is the internalization of experiences with reflection and practice, throughout the whole of life, which lead to the growth of intelligence and its competent and positive use.

Research interests:

Student success in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics disciplines
Integrating the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains of learning
Student belonging and motivation
Development of professional practices in the classroom
Active, cooperative, and authentic learning
Service learning
Multidisciplinary projects

Papers/Presentations:

Batchman, T., Eschenbach, E., Ohland, M., Denton, L., & Krause, S. “Panel - Using Various Methods to Holistically Assess Engineering Education: Diverse Use of Surveys Contribute to Understanding Students and Improving Courses,” 35th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Indianapolis, Indiana, October 19-22, 2005.
Click here to view.
Chapman, D. L., Denton, L. F., & McKinney, D. “The CS1 Lab Experience: Making it Worthwhile!” Birds-of-a-feather, SIGCSE 2002 Technical Symposium, Cincinnati, Ohio, March 2002.
Denton, L. F., McKinney, D., & Doran, M. V. “A Melding of Educational Strategies to Enhance the Introductory Programming Course,” 35th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Indianapolis, Indiana, October 19-22, 2005. Click here to view.
Denton, L. F., & Davidson-Shivers, G. V. “Sequencing Integrated Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor Learning Goals in a Confluent Instructional Framework,” 2005 AERA Conference, Montreal, Canada, April 2005.
Denton, L. F., & McKinney, D. “Affective Factors and Student Achievement: A Quantitative and Qualitative Study,” 34th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Savannah, GA, October 20 – 23, 2004. Click here to view.
Denton, L. F. “Promoting Excellence with Affective Learning Objectives,” a presentation for PETAL (Program for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning) for the University of South Alabama, October 29, 2003.
Denton, L. F., McKinney, D., & Doran, M. V. “Promoting Student Achievement with Integrated Affective Objectives,” In the Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition, Nashville, Tennessee, USA June 2003.
Denton, L. F., Doran, M. V., McKinney, D. “Integrated Use of Bloom and Maslow for Instructional Success in Technical and Scientific Fields”, Proceedings of ASEE 2002, Montreal, Canada, June 2002.
Click here to view.
Denton, L., Cannon, K., Toomey, J., Lee, A. “Use of Participatory Development as a Transition to Higher Bloom Levels,” Proceeding of the 34th Annual Southeast Conference, The Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., New York, 1996.

Johnson, R., Chapman, D., Denton, L. F., & Doran, M. V., "Refining the Definition of a Breadth-First Introductory Course to Computing", ACM Mid-Southeast Chapter Fall Conference, November 2003, Gatlinburg, TN.
Keily, Sr. M. G., & Denton, L. “National Adoption Survey,” Catholic Charities USA, October 1988.
Langan, D., Denton, L. F., & McKinney, D. “Affective Objectives in a Programming Languages Course,” Proceeding of the 43rd ACM Southeast Conference, Kennesaw, Georgia, March 18-20, 2005.
Martin, C. D., Eisman, G. S., Sanderson, P., Denton, L. F., & McKinney, D. “Broadening the CS Experience with Service Learning: Challenges, Strategies, and Opportunities”, Birds-of-a-feather, SIGCSE 2002 Technical Symposium, Cincinnati, Ohio, March 2002.
McKinney, Dawn and Denton, Leo F. “Successfully Crossing the Cultural Border between High School and College: Promoting a Sense of Belonging in a Freshman Seminar Course,” to be presented at the 36th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, San Diego, CA, October 28-31, 2006. Click here to view.
McKinney, D., & Denton, L. F. “Developing Collaborative Skills Early in the CS Curriculum in a Laboratory Environment,” Proceedings of the 37th SISCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, Houston, TX, March 1-5, 2006. Click here to view.
McKinney, D., & Denton, L. F. “Affective Assessment of Team Skills in Agile CS1 Labs: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” Proceedings of the 36th SISCSE Technical Symposium On Computer Science Education, St. Louis, MO, February 2005.
Click here to view.
McKinney, D., Froeseth, J., Robertson, J., Denton, L. F., & Ensminger, D. “Agile CS1 Labs: eXtreme Programming Practices in an Introductory Programming Course,” Proceedings of XP/Agile Universe 2004, Calgary, Canada, August 15-18, 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, 2004. Click here to view.
McKinney, D., & Denton, L. F. “Houston, We have a Problem: There’s a Leak in the CS1 Affective Oxygen Tank,” Proceedings of the 35th SISCSE Technical Symposium On Computer Science Education, Norfolk, Virginia, March 2004. Click here to view.
McKinney, D., Peterson, K., & Denton, L. “We Go Together”: Discipline-Based Learning Community Leads to
Positive Developments for Students,” Presentation at the 20th International Conference on The First-Year Experience,
Kona, Hawaii, July 9 - 12, 2007.