Personal Teaching and Learning Explorations
As editor of the seminal volume Instructional Technology: Foundations, Robert M. Gagné (1987) collected research to define the then new and expanding field of instructional technology, and to provide indicators of where it may go in the future. He attributed “two sets of events” that brought about the development of the discipline. The first event was the continuing advancements in technology. The second, and to Gagné—“equally essential”—was the growing number of individuals with “a dedication to the promise of human learning, and a vision of how to promote the spread of human knowledge” (p. 1).
According to Gagné, these individuals would research, investigate and verify “the features of communications to human learners that optimize learning, and…discover how these features may best be planned and executed with the use of the various communication media and their combinations” (p.7). I feel I’m one of those individuals described by Gagné, who is devoted to the “promise of human learning” and am seeking a “vision of how to promote” exceptional teaching and lifelong learning. With my return to the university, I intend to explore all of the avenues of AI technologies that have and will enhance teaching and learning.
I’m interested in finding a way that the design and delivery of curriculum can better take into account the lifestyle and circumstances of the individual, especially when national and international instability have caused many of this generation to grow up in a world without structure. We have a post-911 world, a post-truth world, and a current COVID-19 world. It’s difficult for many learners to be integrated into a learning community because structural frameworks are changing and disappearing, and millions of individuals live outside of the formal educational system either because of lack of opportunity or poverty.
Gagné, R. M. (1987). Introduction. In R. M. Gagné (Ed.), Instructional technology: Foundations (pp. 1-9). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.