My current educational responsibilities for Iowa AEA PD Online are two-fold. I develop web-based professional development courses for inservice K12 teachers and professional staff. To deliver these courses I created the Iowa AEA Professional Development Online Learning System, a database-driven learning management system. Since the beginning of the 2009 school year nearly 800 thousand training courses have been delivered to educators in every public (and most private) districts in the state.
In 2015 I designed and developed a second online learning environment, this time for K-12 students: the Iowa Student Personalized Learning System. This system allows participating Iowa schools to create a variety of online, personalized learning opportunities for their students, as well as provide access to a statewide catalog of content, assessments, and performance tasks. For this system I am currently developing curriculum for students to learn computer game design and development.
My philosophy on learning and teaching
My experiences in education have led me to adopt the constructivist point of view regarding how we learn and how we should teach. My work as an educator is guided by my foundational research area, the uses of technology in learning and teaching. In this, I am strongly influenced by the work of Neil Postman. While there needs to be a balance between technology, pedagogy, and the content area knowledge, I feel that educators need to come first to an understanding of the purpose for the student to learn the content knowledge before thinking about what technology to use. In other words, our first question as educators needs to be, “why should the student learn whatever it is that we want her or him to learn?”
Once it is time to select an appropriate technology, we need to cast what Elliot Eisner termed a “critical eye” toward the uses of technology in education. By looking beyond the quantifiable elements of the various instructional technologies we possess to the inherent qualities and assumptions that lie within each technology, we can move beyond issues of how to use a given technology in teaching and learning with an answer to the question of why the use of that technology is appropriate.
Iowa AEA Professional Development Online
Advanced learning technologist: June 2013 — now
I research, design, and develop technology-assisted learning systems. These systems provide a high degree of student interactivity, reflecting a view of learning as a complex, constructive activity on the part of learners that can be enhanced with detailed, adaptive guidance, and are capable of assessing learners while they use the system along a range of educational dimensions.
Online learning specialist: July 2009 — June 2013
Online professional development curriculum designed or developed include the areas of: digital publishing, and TPACK – Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge Integration.
Heartland Area Education Agency
Online learning specialist: June 2000 — July 2009
Online professional development curriculum designed or developed include courses in: professional conduct and ethics, managing student behaviors, and compliance with state and federally mandated standards.
Iowa State University
Instructor: August 2000 — December 2000
Curriculum and Instruction 403: Design and Development of Computer-based Learning. Course examines research and application of principles of instructional development and learning theory for the development of interactive multimedia.
Assistant seminar facilitator: August 2000 — December 2000
Curriculum and Instruction 615: Graduate Seminar. Course examines selected topics in curriculum and instruction; analysis of research potential; evaluation of impact upon the profession; and implications for additional research.
Recitation instructor: August 1998 — May 2000
Curriculum and Instruction 201: Introduction to Instructional Technology. Course provides overview of instructional technology, with an emphasis on pedagogical considerations in the use of technology and preparation of teaching materials.
Adjunct faculty: May 1996 — August 1996
Speech Communication 212: Fundamentals of Public Speaking. Course examines theory and practice of basic speech communication principles as applied to public speaking, with an emphasis on the preparation and delivery of extemporaneous speeches.
Recitation instructor: August 1994 — May 1996
Speech Communication 212: Fundamentals of Public Speaking. Course description as above.