regardingjohn

This is a note of reflection. On Dec. 1, I started a new position as a Learning Consultant for the Academic Tech department at a major midwest university. It’s the end of the second week for me, so I thought I’d sit down and try to digest what it is that I’m doing.

I work in a cubicle in a university building that used to be a nightclub. I’ve seen some great bands and enjoyed some lovely cocktails sitting approximately where I currently sit. Truth be told, my desk chair is way more comfortable than the cocktail table stools were, but the ambience is lacking a bit since the university took over…

As to my job duties, I will be “consulting with faculty to help them integrate technology into their classes in pedagogically-effective ways” (I’ve been working on this wording—does it make sense?). So, I’m not “tech support” and can’t/won’t help them set up a printer. Nor will I actually move their syllabus online (in any form). But rather, I’ll hold their hand and help them learn how to do pedagogically-related tech stuff for themselves. This is where my PhD in Curriculum and Instruction/Educational Technology should come in handy. We’ll see how practical it will prove to be.

It looks like I’ll be focusing on four areas—mobile learning, hybrid learning, sims and games, and digital storytelling. I’ll frame them here as I’d like to see them framed, although to be honest my supervisors might have other ideas about how they break down.

With Mobile Learning, I see my job as continuing to research, advocate, and help implement (at this stage, this includes a lot of design), the use of mobile devices at the University. Primarily, my department supports “for-credit” classes, but since the lines between formal and informal (especially experiential) learning are becoming more and more blurred (partly due to the ubiquity of tech—especially via mobile), I expect my responsibilities to be more fluid as well. Specifically, I want to:

• help design a campus mobile presence (e.g. iPhone and Android app)— not just a portal to their web presence.
• integrate it with their D2L client,
• integrate it with maps (GPS, ARIS, Layar. etc.)
• integrate it with their calendar (currently the very not user-friendly Oracle)
• integrate it with student records (horrid horrid PeopleSoft!)
• integrate it somehow with the social media that students are using (Facebook) in such a way that they’ll also use the campus one.

With Hybrid Learning, I see my job as supporting the Desire2Learn client that the university uses. It’s a bit, um, unwelcoming to new users so my job (as I see it) is to become an expert at it and develop pedagogically-sensible and user-friendly ways to help faculty use it. Along the way, I need to also advocate to the developers (both local university people and D2L programmers) on ways to make it easier/better (faster/stronger). And a mobile version for crying out loud.

With Sims and Games, I see my job as extending my work and interest in the pedagogy of play, focusing on engagement and motivation through hands-on applications of concept- and skill- acquisition through simulations and games. Currently the focus is on digital instantiations of this, but I’d love to help develop much, non-digital approaches and simple in-class methods.

With Digital Storytelling, I am assisting an expert in DST, and helping her develop and run workshops. This area is the most uncertain to me, as it seems to already be well-developed. I’m not sure in which ways I can best help yet.

In addition to these four areas, I have to respond to faculty requests for help in pretty much any area that our department supports, so I have to become an expert (or advanced user at least) in all of the current technologies, such as clickers, rich media streaming, podcasting, etc.

The trick, it seems, is for me to carve out time for all of these projects in the workweek. As such, I’ll have to schedule, say, 2 hours every other day for each, and assume that the other four hours a day will be filled with meetings, workshops, and faculty consultations.

That’s enough reflection for now.