Introduction Post

Introduction

Callaghan Vineyards

Hi, everyone! I’m Brad--the guy in the hat. I live in Benson, Arizona, with my wife Anna and our two boys (Hayden, 7, and Seth, 4). I was in the Army for seven years and spent fifteen months in Iraq from 2007 to 2008. Since getting out of the Army in 2009, I have been a senior training and development specialist at one of the military intelligence courses on Ft. Huachuca, AZ. And for the past seven semesters, I have taught as associate faculty at the Cochise College Benson Center. My regular courses are ENG 100: Intermediate Writing, COM 102: Intro to Communications, ENG 119: Creative Writing, and ENG 219: Advanced Creative Writing.

Tombstone Deadlift Shootout

I’m an avid reader. I also enjoy playing sports with my boys, wine-tasting in Sonoita with my wife, and powerlifting all by myself. I currently hold the USPF Arizona state records for squat, bench press, deadlift, and full-power total in the 165-lb raw open division. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities, a Master of Arts in English (all but thesis), and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Currently, I am pursuing a Master of Science in Educational and Instructional Technology. I love the learning process. If I am not actively engaged in learning something new, I feel stagnant, like my life has slowed down.

Philosophy of Education

My love of learning is most likely where I get my love of teaching, because as a teacher, I am always learning something new, whether it’s for a new class I’m teaching or a new bunch of students I’m interacting with. And I want to inspire that love of learning in others. The educational quote I find most fitting to my learning and teaching style is from William Butler Yeats: “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” One of my main goals is to motivate my students to want to learn, to dig deeper than the course and the text require, to begin a lifelong love of inquiry. I believe that any student with the desire to learn can be taught. And if that desire does not exist, I believe it can be inspired.

 

Goals for Integrating Technology

First, I want to better engage my college students who are digital natives by incorporating technology in my lessons and in the students’ assignments. Many of my students come to college right after high school, and this generation has grown up with constant access to the internet and technology via personal computers, iPhones, iPads, iPods, and a whole list of other electronic devices. By using technology based in sound learning theory, I can meet these students in their digital comfort zones.

Second, I want to prepare my students who are not digital natives for the 21st Century workplace, where they will most likely have to function as well as (or in some cases, better) than their younger counterparts who grew up plugged into the Net. By presenting lessons via multimedia and Web 2.0 tools and requiring students to work in those environments, I can introduce students to new technology and help them build valuable job skills.

And third, I want to save myself more class time to focus on meeting course learning objectives. Currently, I incorporate online collaborative learning theory in my blended courses at Cochise College, and we use many different tools: Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Slides, Moodle, discussion boards, Edmodo, Blogger, and the list goes on. My classes meet only once per week, and the rest of the work is done online. Every semester, I find myself spending a disproportionate amount of class time teaching students how to use the technology. Making video tutorials like this one will help me cut down on the amount of class time spent teaching new tech and troubleshooting problems.

This Post is Only the Beginning

I intend to start out by posting video tutorials here for my students on the various digital tools we use throughout the semester. As I get more comfortable blogging and as I find my niche here, I plan to discuss and link to resources for educators and discuss my use of various resources in my classroom. Feel free to link to any of my videos on YouTube that you may find helpful in your own practices. And please leave suggestions or feedback in the comments below.