Christine
Whitlock
I am a writer, product manager, learning designer, editor, and content developer with experience working with diverse teams, communicating and problem-solving across departments, design thinking, and creating and delivering quality educational content. I have a background in content development and educational publishing, and I offer project management skills along with a passion for creating quality educational experiences in children's media and games. I am available for freelance editing and writing as well as job opportunities in the education sector.
I earned my Master's in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in the Technology, Innovation, and Education program. My interests are in literacy instruction and the science of reading, informal learning, educational games, learning through play, and learning design.
Photo credit: Alethea Campbell
I'm a writer and editor with expertise in editing pre-submission book chapters, journal articles, and conference paper manuscripts for educational researchers, as well as in editing dissertations and theses for graduate students. I offer tiered pricing based on the complexity and level of support needed. Email me for a quote on your manuscript.
I work with you as my client to make sure your paper reflects your science accurately and your findings articulately. I proofread and edit for grammar, spelling, clarity, and sense and can ensure that your paper meets APA formatting and journal-specific formatting guidelines. I also have experience with preparing NSF grants, including writing and editing sections to match NSF-formatting and organizing relevant files.
My clients include researchers and graduate students at MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, and Intel. I have my Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Technology, Innovation, and Education, and I have edited papers on topics ranging from assessment, game-based learning, educational data mining, affect and education, teacher practice spaces, and grit and resilience.
Below are some of the projects I've worked on. Additional writing samples are available upon request.
Rebrickulus is an educational tabletop game that uses LEGO bricks to foster creativity, improve problem-solving skills, and promote divergent thinking. I created Rebrickulus along with my partner, Laura Fradin.
Story Explorer is a prototype for a choose-your-own-adventure app for struggling beginner readers ages 6-8. Story Explorer is designed to increase reading skills, foster a love of reading and storytelling, promote executive functioning skills, and encourage social emotional learning by giving kids agency in their stories. My partner served as the primary Learning Designer and supporting developer, and I was the developer and illustrator and supporting Learning Designer. We both performed QA testing.
Learning to Knit with Lanolin is a sample lesson from a unit on teaching 8 year olds to knit. Designed for groups of five, this lesson includes a video tutorial, teacher’s guide, and worksheet on creating a knit stitch.
BodySquad is a cooperative educational game designed for use in middle school science classrooms. BodySquad teaches students how the systems of the body work together by having students work in teams to reach homeostasis as their character goes through scenarios like running a marathon or battling pneumonia.
Connect Stars is an educational tabletop game designed to assess student's understanding of geometry concepts, and is aligned to Common Core standards for middle school math.
This is a formative evaluation for the Observing with NASA program at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The program allows the public free use of their robotic telescopes to take pictures of astronomical bodies.
Mondo is a proposal for a social networking site, designed to foster global citizenship and cross-cultural connections by connecting teens from different parts of the world over shared interests. Through partnerships with community organizations, Mondo will feature face-to-face events that teach teens skills that allow them to share their stories through Mondo. Mondo was created with Ilana Weiss, graphic designer Alethea Campbell and two additional team members.
My writing sample is a content analysis of how gender roles and superpowers changed in action cartoons from 1982-2016.
Dominion Unit Plan: Developed AP Economics curriculum to use the board game Dominion to teach math and economic concepts
EcoBuilder is a prototype in Unity for an RPG-adventure style game to teach middle school students about ecosystems. I researched content, designed creature stats, and populated CSV files with relevant information.
2023-PRESENT
Product Manager
Managing portfolio of literacy products including soliciting customer feedback, prototyping, iterating, building MVP products, and setting roadmaps and strategies for programs
2019-2022
Product Manager
Managing portfolio of phonics program and Advanced Placement and Electives titles, including soliciting customer feedback, prototyping, iterating, building MVP products, and setting roadmaps and strategies for programs
Editor and Writer
Editing pre-submission journal and conference papers, book chapters, and dissertations for grammar, spelling, clarity, sense, and APA formatting for education research scientists at MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, and Intel
Seeking freelance opportunities working with educational researchers and graduate students. Email me for rates and availability.
Learning Designer and Content Developer
Writing and developing stories and games to promote learning goals, including social-emotional development, healthy eating, and STEM
Researching educational theories and practices and child development to guide content creation, and synthesizing research basis of work for parent audience
2017-2018
English Language Consultant
Writing and developing cloze tests, essays, and passages with accompanying questions for science and history topics aligned to CEFR standards for beginning English language learners at a Japanese education company.
2017
Learning Designer
Developed curriculum for teacher candidates at the Woodrow Wilson Academy of Teaching and Learning, including ideation, research, prototyping, testing, and iterating learning experiences
Facilitated playtests, transcribing and coding data from playtests; co-authored paper on implementing game-based learning
Revised lesson plan drafts to create curriculum materials for teachers implementing educational games in their classroom
2017
Design Fellow Intern
Internship to help the Teaching Systems Lab and Woodrow Wilson Academy of Teaching and Learning develop curriculum for Design Fellows year, including ideation, research, prototyping, testing, and iterating learning experiences.
2016
Education Outreach Intern
Internship to help edtech start-up focused on project-based learning for middle school math with education outreach, UX/UI design, bug testing, and proofreading marketing materials.
Project Manager
Project manager for digital learning environments and print textbooks for Higher Education mathematics list.
2009 – 2013
Content Editor, Associate Content Editor
Editorial project manager for digital learning environments and print textbooks for Higher Education developmental mathematics list.
2006 – 2009
Assistant Editor, Editorial Assistant
Project manager for print supplements programs for Higher Education mathematics list.
Co-Founder, Writer, Designer
Co-founded independent game studio, writer and designer for Flash and tabletop games.
Pavlov, O., Kim, Y. J., and Whitlock, C. (in press). Food fight: Teaching systems thinking and ecosystems. In K. Schrier (Ed.), Learning, Education and Games (Vol. 3): 100 games to use in the classroom and beyond. Pittsburgh, PA: ETC Press (Carnegie Mellon).
Whitlock, C. (2018, July 24). How to raise kind, compassionate, and empathetic children [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@christine.whitlock/how-to-raise-kind-compassionate-and-empathetic-children-305d94afaafa
Whitlock, C. (2018, August 7). Do parents value academic success over kindness? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@christine.whitlock/do-parents-value-academic-success-over-kindness-cefe8f32d4ee
Whitlock, C. (2019, January 23). Where are you during your child’s screen time? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://blog.woobo.io/what-joint-media-engagement-is-and-why-you-should-be-doing-it/
Balsamiq
Invision
Sketch
Adobe XD
Miro
Mural
Illustrator
Photoshop
Acrobat
Asana
Trello
GitHub
Basecamp
Jira
Dedoose
Dovetail
HTML
CSS
Twine
Amazon Web Services
cPanel
Canvas
Project-based course to explore the process of building and testing models in games and simulations. Explores various approaches to learning with games and simulations, criteria for developing the most appropriate simulation/model/game mechanics for a given situation, and methods for evaluating the success and utility of models. Projects include developing a curriculum for an existing game; developing and designing an educational board game; and developing and designing an educational digital game.
A practicum course to learn from researchers, creative talent, and senior executives from Sesame Workshop, as well as local museums, community centers, after-school programs, and summer camps to develop a new informal learning venture. Final project is a group project to create a proposal for a large-scale, multimedia-based informal learning intervention, presented orally to media industry participants, and submitted as a final written proposal. Course skills required formative evaluation, proposal writing, pitch presentation, and oral and written communication.
This project-based course introduces advanced topics in the design and development of technology for education, including design thinking for educators, service and human-centered design practices and web programming for interactive learning applications. Final project develops an educational technology product from problem framing to solution prototyping.
A course to explore the impact of media in educating and socializing children and teenagers. Introduction to psychological, sociological, and survey research, exploration of variety of content, documenting the developing child's patterns of use and understanding of media, examining theories and methods for assessing media effects, reviewing research on the role of media in shaping identity and relationships, and analyzing public policies that affect media creators, consumers, and citizens. Projects included content analysis and interviewing a child on their media use.
A project-based course to explore research-based design process in a technology-based project. Activities included research, ideating, prototyping, wireframing, UI/UX design, and iterating.
This project-based course covers methodologies and issues related to the evaluation of educational products. Course project focuses on designing and implementing an evaluation study, conducting human subject research, and analyzing data to inform the design of an educational product, to be presented in an oral presentation and final written report.
A project-based course that investigates the theoretical foundations of learning by creating and explore how to design learning experiences and technologies that support creating as a central activity. Topics include constructivist and constructionist theories of learning, the role of digital and physical materials in learning, supporting interest and motivation, the social nature of learning, and reflective learning practices. Final project is related to the theme of "designing for learning by creating".
A general introduction to financial management practices and problems of nonprofit organizations. Course topics include budgeting, financial accounting, cost accounting, cost containment and retrenchment, management control systems, analyzing and assessing financial reports, and understanding strategic planning in nonprofit organizations.
A practitioner-focused, experiential course introducing frameworks, tools, and skills to effectively manage negotiations in a variety of professional and personal settings. Coursework include hands-on negotiation simulations and exercises designed to enhance skills, demonstrate particular concepts, and provide opportunities to experiment with various negotiation techniques. Course topics include preparation, value creation, distribution, difficult tactics, advanced listening, difficult conversations, and multiparty negotiation.