Los Angeles Times
CUTTING EDGE

IBM e-business security solutions

Monday, May 11, 1998

Tech Careers
Multimedia Instructor Branches Out After Returning to His Roots
By KATE DUNN

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Two years ago David Baker was living in Los Angeles, which he loves, but working at a job that no longer inspired him. "I had a creative passion that I had to fulfill," Baker said. "I even considered going back to school to study media law."
Instead, far more exciting outlets for his creative energies presented themselves. Now he's living in his native Colorado, working to bring desktop multimedia technology to residents of the mountains and deserts of the rural Southwest.
Baker teaches multimedia courses at Fort Lewis College in Durango. Among his many challenges are the cultural differences between his Ute and Navajo students and their Anglo counterparts--differences that have inspired him to adopt a more flexible teaching style.
To illustrate, Baker described the perception one Navajo student had of the "delete" key, associating it with death. Realizing that the student didn't have the same difficulty with the editing commands, Baker suggested he simply "cut" unwanted material instead.
"Dave understands people, particularly the Navajo people," said Darren Tsosie, a Navajo biology major who took Baker's course to get the most out of his new computer. "He's got a feel for the kinds of questions that'll come up."
Baker also participates in three other projects, the most time-consuming of which is the college's distance education program.
As multimedia producer, Baker tapes college classes with digital video equipment, adds supplementary content and distributes the result over the Internet to libraries, schools and Native American reservations.

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