Ep. 09
Looking back at this past academic year, marking 25 years at George Mason University and 28 years in higher education, I engaged in two grant writing experiences that took me back full circle to my dissertation study. Really? Who would have thought with everything going on in our field that I can circle back to personalizing instruction when writing these grant proposals. Specifically to contextualizing instruction to students’ most-preferred and personally-relevant interests which was the title of my dissertation. Even more surprising was the recent connection I made between generative learning and generative AI. It was an aha moment for me. Remember Wittrock’s (1990) Generative Learning Theory and Weinstein’s Learning Strategies Model? Well, in the age of generative AI, this is making a lot of sense. So is the concept of “mindtools” which I was introduced to by my late mentor (David Jonassen). I would like to share the story of my academic journey on the DS106 Radio Summer Camp and how I came back full circle to concepts I learned almost 3 decades ago! And they still make sense! But does our field still make sense? Can we still call it Educational Technology? Or Instructional Technology? Or Instructional Design? Or Learning Design? Or Learning Engineering? Where are we going with this ever-evolving field? I would like to end on this note.
