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Becoming an Entrepreneurial Instructional Designer: Know What Sets You Apart
This is the age of the side hustle. As a multipassionate and multipotential person, I want to experiment and grow with my different giftings through my side hustle. I have started consulting work as a side gig using my Adobe Captivate, graphic and motion design skills. This doesn’t mean I’m not going to hold a fulltime job. My side hustle is a side hustle; it’s not my main occupation. My next growth phase as an instructional designer (ID)/learning designer is to learn to become more self-directed in securing and working…
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In Faculty Words: From Desire to Educated Ability to Promote Inclusivity
Faculty Development. A phrase I’ve long considered rather odd and incongruous. Maybe it’s because I’ve been emotionally damaged by the words of one of my ID professors in grad school. He told me that faculty (in his world) hate the term “faculty development” because they are already developed. They don’t need to develop anymore. They are possibly open to training, but not development. Another reputable ed psych and edtech professor who upon learning that I was going to tread the path of a practitioner (and not join the hallowed halls…
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Institute on Inclusive Teaching: Quick Notes
[Related blogposts: 2014 Reflections on the Institute on Inclusive Teaching; There’s a Place for Us; EdContexts full version] [Image description: Words: Restorative Justice, Dignity of Risk, Structural Poverty, Traumatizing Awareness, Food Shock] Last year, it took me a couple of weeks to distill my thoughts into a blogpost. The above image captures some of the ideas I’m mulling over. Structural Poverty. We meet again Through veiled window glass frosted by body heat Rain pelted outside and within Wetting my white linen and polka-dotted leggings My guilt and helplessness remained What…
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This is How I Work
[Questions: LifeHacker] Current Gig: Learning Innovation Design Specialist at VCU ALT Lab. One word that best describes how you work: INTENSE. Current mobile device: Samsung Galaxy S6 for most of my on-the-go stuff, blue-tooth streaming of playlists, long-distance communication on Whatsapp, spontaneous photo capture of special moments. Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 (8 inch) for reading Kindle books, and other web resources. I had an old MacBook Pro for consulting with clients but have recently upgraded to a Dell XPS 13 Touch which is much lighter and syncs with my…
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Learning Organization
“… a project’s relative degree of success or failure may change over time. The Sydney Opera House is a good example. The original 1957 project plan called for the project to be finished in 5 years at a cost of $7M. In the end, the project cost $110M and took 13 years. By any measure that was a severely troubled project…” – Calleam Consulting Ltd. I am taking time to reflect on the projects I’m working on, mostly to sort out my understanding about this topic of project success. Thinking…
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Youth Wants to be Digitally Connected
I finally ran the ECAR student survey data using SPSS. A dear friend suggested I use Excel’s pivot tables and charts. I tried and felt more comfortable with SPSS (version 22 now! Wow!). I regret not doing it earlier. Even though I was discouraged against doing it by someone else, I’ve learned to listen to my heart and act on my intuition. There are a few other furious regrets I have about this project. I will keep them close to my heart and shake off things that don’t matter to…
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Photowalks
The above two photos were taken on July 30, 2014, on my first photo safari with my colleagues. The next 4 were taken on January 16, 2015 with my new colleagues, Emma and Max, with Tom leading. All photos were taken using my Samsung Galaxy phone. I find this throne-like chair that is blocking the doorway curious. I have a penchant for snapping pictures of trees — blooming, withered, snarling. They are easily symbols of life and death. Architecture is another fave subject. “Don’t they all look the same after…
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Awesome Excel Chart Quick Tips for Web Display
Last week, my colleagues and I created 3 Excel spreadsheets in an effort to highlight some of VCU participants’ responses to the EDUCAUSE ECAR Undergraduate Student and Faculty Technology Research Studies Surveys. This division of labor resulted in an unfortunate consequence. Different machines, different data, and different perspectives resulted in different data presentation styles. To standardize the look of the charts, I offered to be the general editor. One set of eyes working on one machine is likely the best way to make the look and language of the charts…
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525600 minutes
[Note: Have you watched Rent, the Musical? That’s where the title of this blogpost comes from.] I returned to work this week. At one of our meetings, we discussed how we would measure the impact of our work and how we would report it. Traditionally, we think about impact in terms of productivity, time spent (number of consultations!), the importance of the project, and response to the effort. A whole field is devoted to systematically researching how we assess and measure employee productivity– human resource development and/or management, so I…
