Over the years, Designers for Learning’s database of contacts with a valid email has grown to around 5,500 people. Given our high percentage of college students, we lose quite a few at the end of semesters when students graduate and their .edu emails are retired, but the new enrollment each new term tends to even things…
The 2019 AECT Convention Call for Proposals deadline is creeping up on February 18th, and Designers for Learning participants will be submitting at least 4 (but maybe 6?) submissions related to our work. Today, I aggregated the session topics in a master Google Doc and tomorrow I’ll send it out to the roster of presenters…
Today, my pal and I presented at an Adult Education In-Service day. We shared our thoughts on “Integrating Technology into Instruction—Realistic Strategies for the Adult Education Classroom”. We’ve given versions of this session several times over the past six months. Early in our session, we talk about the fact that over 80% of middle-skills jobs (i.e.,…
Tomorrow, my pal and I will be presenting at the Morton College Adult Education In-Service day. We’re excited to share our thoughts on “Integrating Technology into Instruction—Realistic Strategies for the Adult Education Classroom”. Here’s the overview of our session: “While most adults have smartphones, many lack the digital skills needed to acquire and evaluate information, communicate…
My latest used book arrived in the mail yesterday, Schon’s 1984 “The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think In Action” 1st Edition. With Monica Tracey and John Baaki on our board at Designers for Learning, it was only a matter of time before I ordered this. They cite Schon’s work throughout their chapter titled, “Design, Designers,…
In my course this term, students have the option to write a case study for one of their course assignments. In digging for writing/assessment guidance, I came across the Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership. Since Ed Leadership is outside my area of expertise, I’ve never seen this peer-reviewed (and yes … behind a walled…
Today started by rolling out of bed to the picture (that should appear) with this post. It’s from my condo looking to the SE about 2 miles from downtown Chicago. If I didn’t know Lake Michigan was “behind” the city skyline, I would have thought Chicago had another fire on our hands. As the day…
Designers for Learning just completed a 5-week Evaluation Sprint, a crowdsourcing effort to evaluate 108 open educational resources (OER) created by volunteers in our prior service-MOOCs to support adult basic skills education programs. I’m always amazed by the support we receive from our network of volunteers and this project was no exception. In terms of…
Here’s a copy of my dissertation: Maddrell, J. A. (2011). Community of inquiry framework and learning outcomes (Doctoral dissertation). Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA. I’ve had my dissertation up on my personal website for years. I’ve never taken the time to set up my site to track the “hits” to it, so I must not really care…
As I write (and rewrite and rewrite) the overview for the first week of Technology, Learning Systems, and Culture, a course I’m co-teaching with Stephanie Moore at the University of Virginia, I’m trying to pull examples from recent history to frame the (wonderful!) readings Stephanie assembled. Our first week’s reading list includes Andrew Feenberg’s 1999…