Hi. I am Roger Frybarger, the aspiring programmer and math tutor behind Roger’s Math Whiteboard. I created Roger’s Math Whiteboard because I saw that math teachers were being underserved by the current state of the art interactive whiteboard, (Smartboard) technology. Back in 2014 I saw an opportunity to leverage my newly obtained programming knowledge to create a better system for them. Since then I have devoted a substantial amount of my free time to creating and refining such a system. I hope one day to code for a living and hope that the process of creating this project is a stepping stone towards getting there.
How & Why I Code
I am a very process- and detail-oriented person. My mother can attest to this. From a very young age I would avoid taking part in things that didn’t follow a clean, logical and efficient process. This tenancy made itself clear at one point when I would not help take the groceries in from the car until I had built a wheeled cart on which to transport the bags of groceries. What my mother took from this was that I was not protesting the activity itself but instead was protesting the process used to conduct the activity. In many ways this exemplifies how & why I code. I spend a lot of time trying to think through the process to make it as simple and efficient as possible. I especially like programming because it crystallizes the process itself down to lines of text in a computer file. The code itself doesn’t care how many times it gets executed. It just represents the process used to conduct a particular task. Thus, I find coding to be a natural extension of the native tendencies that I have had since my childhood.
How I Came Upon Programming
I came upon programming rather late in my life. I had access to a computer from the time that I was six. However, neither of my parents were particularly interested in computers or had sufficient time to show me what they could be used for, much less how to program them. Thus, I largely ignored the world of computers until I was 17 and started college. However, this time was not wasted. Since I was home schooled, I was allowed to perfect my skills at both carpentry, (my father’s occupation), and dabble with electronics. This, without realizing it, built a solid foundation for the programmatic endeavors that I engage in today.
Once I started college I was forced to learn how to use a computer to write papers and access online resources. Still though, this was nothing beyond basic computer usage. By the time I was winding my way through my my last few math classes in late 2011, (age 19), I had figured out the basics and was venturing into more advanced topics. It was at this point that I got my first taste of programming. Ironically, it came from within my Brief Calculus class. One of the requirements for this class was a TI-83 graphing calculator, which I was fairly familiar with from earlier math classes. This particular model of graphing calculator could run primitive user-programmable programs written in a version of the BASIC programming language. Thus, my first experience with programming involved creating various small programs to help me with basic algebraic tasks that repeatedly appeared in the coursework. One such program dealt with converting linear equations from one form to another form.
Now that I had gotten a taste of programming, I was ready for the next big step in my coding adventure. Being a scrooge, I decided to attempt to revive an old laptop that I had been given. It was too slow for Windows XP, so a friend of mine suggested installing Linux on it. Since it was a secondary computer and I had gotten it for free, I felt less afraid of experimenting with installing Linux on it. This started my journey into the world of Linux, which continues to this day. Unfortunately, taking formal programming courses would have to wait until near the end of my Business degree.
Up until this point, I was a bit dismissive of my technological skills. Sure, I knew how to program in TI-83 BASIC and could dabble with Linux a bit, but I did not feel comfortable enough to call myself a programmer or go into an IT field. All that changed when I took an Intro to Programming course during my last semester of working towards my 2-year Business Degree. That course convinced me that I should aim my career goals in the direction of computers. Since then I have earned a Bachelors degree in Technology Management from Northern Arizona University and have taken a variety of different IT related courses. Some of these include:
- Intro to Programming in Java
- Programming for the Web in JavaScript
- Programming in C#
- Networking Essentials
- Database Management & SQL
- Computer Repair 1 & 2
- Big Data
- Cloud Computing
- Administration of IT Security and Assurance
In addition to the formal courses that I have taken, I have also dabbled with many various technologies such as:
- HTML & CSS
- Bash
- Visual Basic
- C++ & QT
- Ruby
- Electron
- Virtualbox
- Linux
- Mac
- Windows
- WordPress.com
I have also been a math tutor off & on since the beginning of 2012. I enjoy tutoring math and have recently started tutoring programming as well.
How to Contact Me
At the moment you can contact me via the Feedback section of this website since I am the maintainer of the site & of the project.
Last updated Dec 27, 2016.
Roger's Math Whiteboard 