IT -- HPT -- PHD

It appears that all three fields pay better than a small-town newspaper, and that's the whole sandwich as far as I'm concerned.

I'm still aiming toward academia, but it's good to know what's out there. It's hard to tell what you would really enjoy doing until you really have to do it on a daily basis. Mostly, I want to be a dad and a husband and I feel like there is flexibility in the academic schedule that allows for that. That's not to say it isn't a time-consuming profession, it is. But it appears relatively autonomous and allows intellectual exploration. That's appealing.

I came back to graduate school because I wanted to teach and I've had some opportunities to teach at the university level. I'm really enjoying exploring the historical conceptions of learning and how the instructive professions have tackled the myriad problems associated with trying to help learners grow.

Personal growth is really an essential element of the whole reason we are trying to learn. As I have read so much about learning theories and instructional practices, I have often had cause to pause and reflect on the whole purpose of instruction. What are our aims? The government wants to increase our educational standing, but to what end? Increased gross domestic product? Bragging rights? More technologies to usurp for military prowess? Happiness?

Isn't it incumbent upon us to define our goals for instruction on a small scale? If so, how much more on a large national scale. Why do we put children through school? If we know the reason, are we succeeding? And so, I continue to ruminate.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Literature review

I met with Dr. Gibbons to talk about some approaches to my question. He suggested some readings for me to peruse. I narrowed down my question a bit after some of my reading. I need to finalize a question, but I'm feeling more confident in the direction.
Read more

Open letter to Mom and Dad

Dear Mom and Dad, My current assignment in my foundations of instructional technology class is to write a letter explaining to you in layman's terms a little about the field I am entering. I figure that, since you are often faced with questions about the status of my pursuits in life and because my current life pursuit is labeled with a long-winded title of uncertain meaning, it will be of benefit to actually send you the letter rather than just turning it in for credit. Both of my graduate degrees (first Youth and Family Recreation and now Instructional Psychology and Technology) are a bit unwieldy to the tongue and not immediately clear as to their actual practical value or educational objectives. Although the value and meaning of my YFR degree may be lost in the ether, I hope this letter will at least give you a better idea of what I study now and what will be the likely outcome for my career when I graduate. The field of my current endeavor started out as instructional techn
Read more

The funnel of the introduction

The funnel shape of an introduction to a dissertation or research proposal represents a broad statement about a topic that then becomes increasingly focussed toward the final question of interest in the particular research proposal. Here is a possible funnel to my question of interest: Americans seem to have embedded in their collective conscience the image of the rugged individual rising to the top through sheer force of will and on their own merits or because of their lone genius. But current research suggests that lasting innovation and successful businesses result from effective collaboration of many people together rather than from solitary contributions of brilliant individuals. As a result, many organizations espouse a growing need for people in the modern workplace to be able to work in teams in order to innovate solutions to rapidly changing problems in myriad disciplines. Research from the last decade or so has shed new light on the attributes of group creativity an
Read more