My name is Chris Daniel. I work for information technology at EKU where I do training and administer our professional development programs. Recently I developed a training program to instruct employees on the use of our highly customized web site content management system. As an ISD doctoral student, I have learned a lot about how to design more effective live and online modules, and so I am excited to be in this program and class.
I am a pretty serious student. I never intended to take my education this far, but life's circumstances, tuition reimbursement and the fact that what I am studying is closely tied to my job have led me here. I tend to talk quite a bit out of enthusiasm and because I have spent all this time reading and writing and nobody at home is particularly interested in educational psychology or any of the theory that lays the groundwork for today's instructional designer.
I will list some research/reading interests at the bottom. One of the things that has interested me about this class is that I hope to delve more into pedagogical aspects of teaching. Most of my classes tend to focus on instructional methods relative to a stated goal or series of objectives. Those are powerful concepts. However, I also am beginning to believe that there are personality and dispositional factors that are an integral part of effective teaching. Instructional communications literature uses the term immediacy. Moreover, we have entire areas devoted to defining and qualifying what is effective pedagogy. So in short, I feel like I know which methods must be incorporated given a set of objectives. However, I feel as if I have limited understanding relative to the interpersonal and classroom factors which are practically endemic to the K-12 teacher.
I look forward to conversing with you all.
-Chris
Research/Reading Interests:
- Cognitive load theory
- New instructional technologies vs. low tech analogues
- Augmented/Virtual Reality
- BF Skinner
- Learning objects
- Adult education
- Training Vs. Education
- Constructivism Vs. Objectivism
- In K-12
- Recent university curriculum shifts
- The Montessori system
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteThanks for this introduction to the "scholarly" you. Your interests align nicely to much of the content we will cover this term, so I think you'll have plenty to say as we go through the dominant theories of learning. I also bet you'll be teaching me some stuff about effective online learning. I would love your ideas and suggestions as we go through this experience together. It's my first fully online class, and I am very much processing how to do it well. Feedback welcome!