MicroEd's President and Instructional Designer

Thorwald (Tory) Esbensen - Educator



Thorwald Esbensen incorporated his company, MicroEd, in 1979, thus establishing it as one of the pioneer companies in the field of educational software.

He has taught at all grade levels, kindergarten through university graduate school. He has been an elementary school principal, a secondary school coordinator, an assistant superintendent for instruction, educational administrator for the District of Truk in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, a professor of education at Florida State University, and a college dean of instruction.

In 1980, Executive Educator Magazine named him as one of the top one hundred educational administrators in North America.

In June of 1995, the University of Wisconsin (Oshkosh) presented him with its 1995 Alumni Anniversary Award in recognition of outstanding achievement.

During the 1994-95 school year, his software was used exclusively in an educational project at Duluth, Minnesota, to teach eighty-two second grade youngsters better reading skills. As measured by the Scott, Foresman Reading Placement Tests, these children went from a median score at the 57th percentile in the fall to a median score at the 89th percentile by the end of the school year.

He has written educational software for an ongoing prison literacy project at Minnesota's maximum-security prison in Stillwater.

He has written an American Idiomatic English program for persons who know standard textbook English, but who do not understand American idioms.

He is currently working on putting together a Twin Cities Reading Project, the purpose of which is to use computers to teach inner-city youngsters better reading skills.


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