Scholarly Life of a Committed Technofile

Whew…the final thing to catch up with on reporting out from traveling in Fall 2006. Thomson-Wadsworth, the textbook company I have signed a contract with to write a researcher for FYC, asked my co-author and I to present at a workshop they hosted in Las Vegas (some pics). The “Keeping up with the Jetsons” presentation basically introduced the folks to various Web2.0 technologies and discussed how they might be used in both their own and their students’ lives.

Isn’t it cool to see writing teachers writing…

This trip, in collaboration with my dissertating, textbook writing, my MIL project, sandbox workshop series, Ocotillo R&D work, especially the MCCCD 2007 Convocation, has really helped me to understand how research faculty are so prolific. They recycle! I’m not saying they plagiarize and directly re-print/publish their own work; however, they rework, add and subtract, slightly shift focus, etc. to make something new.

So…my dissertation is work is a study of how faculty learn about and chose to incorporate new and emerging technologies into their teaching. My 2005-6 MIL project further focused that by trying to develop strategies for testing newer technologies in teaching and learning. My 2006-7 Ocotillo R&D project is a continued project on the MIL, while working with some newer technologies. With the 2006-7 Ocotillo work I’ve really begun to focus in on some specific web2.0 technologies.

While being zoomed in on the web2.0 technologies, I’ve started doing a lot of professional development workshops introducing these technologies to faculty. As I develop initial materials for these workshops, the materials further morph into materials for other workshops reports, and publications. Humm…as I’m writing I realize this is one of the examples of my idea on Just-in-Time Scholarship. If we begin to focus on our scholarship as a process, then any time you report out is a just-in-time snapshot of the moment. Obviously there are solid conclusions to scholarship projects/foci; and I would argue that is when your final just-in-time snapshot is a book (or major article). But what if we started to look at publishing processes like Kairos is beginning to develop, where the entire project will emerge as a periodic publication. And at each periodic report, multiple scholars get to reply, peer review, on the project to date. Heck…what if you published your research plans first, and got peer review at that stage? And that is why you all will soon see me publishing the plans for my various projects. I’m hoping readers who happen upon them will give some feedback.