As I mentioned in the opening section, my career hasn’t always followed the track I imagined back in grad school, but I do want to summarize work I’ve produced on behalf of the university and my own professional reputation that I feel makes a strong case for influence beyond campus. One persistent thread in my work in the Adams Center and the Learning Studio has been to ensure that our explorations into pedagogies that enable students to develop their own voice through media and web tools would close the loop by sharing that work with teachers and educational technologists wanting to make an impact on teaching and learning in their contexts.
My scholarly and creative output since becoming an associate professor has necessarily blended writing for print, for web, and increasingly media projects that leverage the very tools we’re exploring to share the results of our work with audiences across K-20 education. The following overview will attempt to define more clearly the types of roles I’ve played in a few representative projects.
Publications – From time to time I’ve had the opportunity to share the results of our work in mobile learning and teaching with media through publications in a variety of forms. I’ve been interviewed for and contributed a chapter to volumes investigating the future of academic libraries. I’ve written two annual reports for the Learning Studio to fulfill the requirements of our grant and contributed planning and writing to previous mobile learning publications on the web and in print.
Invited Presentations – Over the last seven years I’ve presented regularly at national and international conferences, including a number of keynote and featured presentations and extended workshops (denoted with a •bullet below). These presentations represent an ongoing conversation with key figures in teaching and learning with technology that have continued to challenge and enrich my own thinking and projects back on the ACU campus.
Horizon Board – In 2011 I joined the board of technology leaders invited by the New Media Consortium to help produce the Horizon Report for Higher Education each year. This is a remarkably diverse group and has drawn me into regular directors meetings and their Future of Education retreats, sponsored by the Gates Foundation. Each fall we develop an extensive selection of technologies to watch in higher education—a kind of literature survey that encompasses the Internet—and then begin the process of debating and researching what will become the final 6 technologies for university leaders to watch presented along three different time horizons.
EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research – Last spring I was asked to join a group of subject matter experts in developing ECAR’s first faculty survey on IT in higher ed. I was interviewed by the lead researcher, participated in follow-up video conferences and focus groups, and then helped shape the summary of the results. This summer I was asked to continue that role for the next year as well.
Teaching with Digital Storytelling – In 2012, after leading our third multi-day workshop in digital storytelling and after our first faculty pilot, I worked with media production staff in the Learning Studio on a video series called Teaching with Digital Storytelling. I conducted interviews with 4 faculty about their experiences with media projects in Cornerstone, psychology, and math education. As the project producer, I was responsible for lining up interviews, preparing questions, directing the flow of the conversation, and then outlining the initial cut of the interview. I’ve been lucky to work with really talented videographers and editors, and these projects regularly benefit from their input as we tighten the final versions of each short film. These 5 pieces have appeared on the ACU YouTube site as well as the Learning Studio Vimeo channel and have 1,318 total views since 2012.
Future of the Textbook – In the fall of 2011, President Schubert asked the Learning Studio to prepare an annual report with results of our work from our first year working with students and faculty. Not content simply to submit a whitepaper, we used our Year One Report to develop experience with new publishing platforms for tablets like the iPad. Within a few months, that initial prototype was helping shape conversations with Cornerstone faculty about the potential value of publishing a custom interactive textbooks for the following year, and it was the confidence with mobile publishing tools developed with the annual report that led us to propose an iBook written by Cornerstone faculty and produced by the Learning Studio. I co-edited every chapter in that first effort with Cliff Barbarick and Karen Cukrowski and acted as technical editor, the interface between the editors and the designer and developer in the Learning Studio. Around the same time, I worked with Learning Studio staff to provide technical consultation to Baker Academic Press on a New Testament textbook Curt Niccum and Trevor Thompson had been developing with them. Last fall, we worked with them to deliver an initial three chapter proof-of-concept that led to Baker producing the entire text in an iPad-friendly ebook for use by all ACU sections this fall.
Maker Film Project – In 2013 we began talking in the library about how to develop greater awareness of new digital fabrication technologies and the broader Maker Movement. The Learning Studio proposed a major film project that would seek out key voices in the movement to explain the potential of making in education. Over several weeks we interviewed nine key figures, including the founder of Make: Magazine, leaders in making in education at School of Visual Arts, the New York Hall of Science, and Etsy. My role as project producer was similar to that in Teaching with Digital Storytelling but with the added dimension of keeping the project under budget.
We produced a 17-minute documentary we launched last summer at the New Media Consortium that has been viewed more than 25,000 times in more than 120 countries from our Vimeo channel, tweeted by groups like the Lucas Foundation’s Edutopia, TED conferences, and screened in Japan and Hong Kong. We also edited and shared an additional 28 minutes of footage that details the potential impact in schools, STEM programs, and libraries. Last fall James Langford and I were then invited by the Maker Education Initiative to attend the World Maker Faire in New York to share our experience with fellow-educators.
Study Abroad Project – In 2014 we were asked to work with Stephen Shewmaker in the Center for International Education to produce a short film to kick off a meeting of the board of trustees in Oxford. We conducted interviews in Abilene, Oxford, Berlin, and Leipzig with 25 faculty, students, and community partners about their work with ACU Study Abroad. My role as project producer mirrored previous work, including working with Stephen to keep international travel under budget and to shape the messaging of each segment. It was also the first project to which I contributed video footage. The film will begin to be shared more broadly this fall, but it was another crucial opportunity for us to work with a strategic academic program to sharpen their core message and share it with a wider audience. The film has been screened with all incoming students at Passport this summer.
PUBLICATIONS
“Beyond Analogue: The Learning Studio as a Media-Age Library” Better Library and Learning Spaces: Projects, Trends, and Ideas, ed. Les Watson, 2013.
“Year Two Report” iBooks Author project, September 2013.
“Year One Report” iBooks Author project, July 2012.
“Digital Storytelling: The Art of Getting Started,” ADEs on iTunes ePub, August 2011.
“Inventing the Future: AT&T Learning Studio,” ACU Today, Summer 2011, 14-21 (reprinted in ACU Connected Mobile Learning Report, 2010-11, 16-19).
ACU Connected Mobile Learning Report, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2010-2011, Contributor.
WEB PROJECTS
Learning Studio, technical editor, “Cornerstone 2014″ electronic textbook, August 2014.
Learning Studio, producer, “Throughout the World: ACU Study Abroad,” June 2014.
Learning Studio, producer, “PURSUIT Research,” Jennifer Shewmaker interview, November 2013.
Learning Studio, producer, “Scaling the Ladder,” Jack Maxwell interview, October 2013.
Learning Studio, producer, “Rolando Diaz: A Maker Lab Story,” September 2013.
Learning Studio, technical editor, “Cornerstone 2013″ electronic textbook, August 2013.
Learning Studio, producer, “ACU at CitySquare” interviews, August 2013.
Learning Studio, producer, “We Are Makers” short documentary, June 2013.
Learning Studio, producer, “The Mission” presession video, August 2012.
Learning Studio, producer, “AT&T Learning Studio: Year One” video, February 2012.
Learning Studio, producer, “Teaching with Digital Storytelling” video interviews, January 2012.
We Are Makers site, 2013-present.
ACU Blogs Support site, 2009-present.
AT&T Learning Studio site, 2011-present.
Cornerstone Portal and class blogs, 2010-present.
Digital Academy photography workshops site, 2010-present.
ACU Connected site, with marketing, 2008-2010.
ACU FilmFest archive, with Student Productions, 2012-present.
ACU Connected Year Three: Faculty Perspectives videos, producer with Grant Rampy, 2011.
ACU Connected Year Two: Faculty Perspectives videos, producer with Grant Rampy, 2010.
ACU Connected Year One: Faculty Perspectives videos, producer with InFocus video, 2009.
ACU Mobile Tools videos, 2008.
English Comp Blog, with Pearson eCollege, 2009.
CONFERENCES
•bullet denotes keynote, featured, or invited presentations
•Notre Dame Mobile Summit, keynote, November 2014.
•New Media Consortium On the Horizon webinar, “Creating Authentic Learning Opportunities,” with Alex Freeman, November 2014.
Designs on eLearning, San Marcos, “From Maker Movement to Maker Lab,” with Nil Santana, September 2014.
•Designs on eLearning, San Marcos, “Digital Photography post-conference workshop,” with Nil Santana, September 2014.
•EDUCAUSE Learning Technology Institute, Seattle, “How Teams Work,” June 2014.
•EDUCAUSE Learning Technology Institute, Seattle, “Leaderful Decision Making,” with David Wright, June 2014.
•EDUCAUSE Learning Technology Institute, Seattle, “Strategies for Influencing Decisions and Governance,” with David Wright, June 2014.
•New Media Consortium Summer Conference, Portland, “Digital Photography pre-conference workshop,” with Nil Santana, June 2014.
•UNESCO Mobile Learning Week, Paris, “Demonstrating Effective Faculty Development Approaches that Provide Best Practices in Mobile Learning,” February 2014.
EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, New Orleans, “A Maker Vision for Higher Education,” with John Weaver, February 2014.
•EDUCAUSE, Anaheim, “OpenClass: Advancing the Learning Experience” panel, October 2013.
•World Maker Faire, New York, “Making We Are Makers,” with James Langford, September 2013.
•EduSoCal, Malibu, “Digital Photography Workshop,” with Nil Santana, July 2013.
New Media Consortium Summer Conference, Hilton Head, “Making in Education, A Short Feature Film,” with James Langford, June 2013.
•New Media Consortium Summer Conference, Hilton Head, “Digital Photography pre-conference workshop,” with Nil Santana, June 2013.
Conference of College Teachers of English Conference keynote, “Storytelling and the Future of the Profession,” with Bill Carroll, February 2013.
•New Media Consortium webinar, “iBooks Author for Advanced Users and Projects,” with Nathan Driskell and Mathew Bardwell, September 2012.
Cite Conference, Orlando, “Why OpenClass: An IT, Professor, and Administrator Perspective,” with Kevin Roberts, April 2012.
•THE Conference, Doha, Qatar, “Understanding Mobility: ACU Connected in Year Four,” February 2012.
•THE Conference, Doha, Qatar, “Apps for Teaching and Learning,” with Kyle Bowen, February 2012.
•EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, Austin, “Media and Mobility: Changing How and Where Coursework Gets Done,” with Kyle Bowen, February 2012.
•EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, Austin, “Are Devices the Focus? Mobile Approaches to Classroom Engagement,” with Kyle Bowen, February 2012.
Christian Colleges and Universities IT Conference, Abilene, “Faculty Technology Development and the Learning Studio,” February 2012.
Connected Open House, Abilene, “Mobile Teaching and Learning Showcase,” with Bill Rankin, October 2011.
NERCOMP: WordPress in the Liberal Arts, Boston, “New Models for Blogs on Campus,” September 2011.
WordCamp Boston, “Mobile WordPress on Campus,” July 2011.
EDUCAUSE West/Southwest, Austin, “HeadsUp: A Mobile Tool for Deepening Classroom Discussion,” with James Langford, February 2011.
•EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, Washington DC, “HeadsUp: A Mobile Tool for Deepening Classroom Discussion,” with James Langford, February 2011.
Connected Summit, Abilene, “Media and Mobility” track chair and AT&T Learning Studio tours, February 2011.
•EDUCAUSE, Anaheim, “WordCamp EDUCAUSE: WordPress as an Open-Source Platform for Teaching and Learning,” Full-Day Workshop with Gardner Campbell, Jim Groom, and Mike Wiggins, October 2010.
•Anderson University full faculty, Anderson, NC, “Mobile Horizon: Disruptive Change within the University,” Workshop, September 2010.
Connected Open House, Abilene, “Mobility and Next-Wave Interaction,” with Dwayne Harapnuik, September 2010.
•USC Center for Scholarly Technology leadership, Los Angeles, “Mobile Implementation: ACU Connected Update,” August 2010.
New Media Consortium Summer Conference, Anaheim, “The Mobile Horizon: A Panel Discussion,” with Bryan Alexander, Kyle Bowen, and Shan Evans, June 2010.
•mLearn Con, San Diego, “Building a Mobile Vision: From Content to Collaboration,” June 2010.
Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education, San Diego, “From Silo to Sandbox: WordPress as a Mobile Learning Environment,” with Mike Wiggins, March 2010.
•EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Online Spring Focus, “Mobile Collaboration: Redefining the Classroom,” with Bill Rankin, March 2010.
Christian Colleges and Universities IT Conference, Oklahoma City, “ACU Blogs: Mobile Learning with Class Blogs,” February 2010.
•EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Conference, Austin, “The Future of Mobile Learning,” with Dwayne Harapnuik, January 2010.
•EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Conference, Austin, “ACU Blogs: Mobile Applications for WordPress,” with Hab Adkins and Mike Wiggins, January 2010.
EDUCAUSE, Denver, “ACU Connected: Mobile Learning with the iPhone and iPod touch a Year Later,” with Brad Crisp and Scott Perkins, November 2009.
ConnectEd Open House, Abilene, “Mobile Blogging and Podcasting,” October 2009.
Connected Online Conference, Abilene, “Podcasting, Learning Resources, and Beyond”, July 2009.
Connected Online Conference, Abilene, “Digital Roundtable: How Mobility Changes Teaching and Learning,” July 2009.
New Media Consortium Summer Conference, Monterey, “Exploring the Mobile Campus: The ACU Connected Initiative,” with Bill Rankin and George Saltsman, June 2009.
Connected Summit, Abilene, “Podcasting & Mobile Media track”, chair and presenter, February 2009.
EDUCAUSE, Orlando, “ACU Connected: A Case for Campus-wide mLearning with iPhones,” with Bill Rankin and George Saltsman, October 2008.
•Handheld Learning, London, “ACU Connected: The iPhone and Handheld Learning,” with Bill Rankin, October 2008.
New Media Consortium Summer Conference, Princeton, “ACU Connected: A Rationale for Engaging the 21st-Century Student,” with Bill Rankin and George Saltsman, June 2008.
Conference of College Composition and Communication, New Orleans, “Teaching the Audio Essay: Podcasting and Praxis in the This I Believe Curriculum,” April 2008.
INTERVIEWS
Harrison, Andrew, and Les Hutton. Design for the Changing Educational Landscape: Space, Place and the Future of Learning. Routledge, 2013.
Staines, Gail Universal Design: A Practical Guide to Creating and Recreating Interiors of Academic Libraries for Teaching, Learning, and Research. Chandos, 2012.
Van Vleet, Janet. “ACU Learning Studio Offers High-Tech Education Options,” Abilene Reporter News, August 2012.
New Media Consortium, “Ideas that Matter: 20 Voices,” June 2012.
Wise Scholars, Learners’ Voice Podcast, “Implementing Mobile Learning,” February 2012.
AT&T Education Spotlight, “Education Innovation: Transforming the Classroom Experience with Mobile Technology,” February 2011.
EDUCAUSE Now Podcast #25, “How Will Mobile Devices Evolve?” March 2010.
ACU Connected, “Mobile Learning interviews,” January 2010.
NPR Weekend Edition. “This I Believe End of Series interview,” April 2009.
Handheld Learning blog, “Is the 21st Century Here Yet?” January 2009.
Canadian Network for Innovation in Education, with Bill Rankin and George September 2008.
Intended Consequences Podcast, “iPhones in Education,” with Bill Rankin and George Saltsman, May 2008.
Adams Center, “Potential in Podcasting Pedagogy,” May 2007.
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