By Any Other Nerd

Estimated Reading Time: 25 minutes As promised, here is the text of my defense for those that couldn't make it or were interested in revisiting it.  You can also check out the slides here .  If you haven't read about the experience, well, you can check it out here .

Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes Source: ChatGPT Well, it's done. I successfully defended my dissertation; I'm now just have edits to incorporate and getting it through the institutional process.  Damn--I finally did it!  After writing some 60+ posts on this subject ( Started here and continues with this tag ), I'm within a handful of posts to wrap up the (chronologically) longest series I've done on this blog.   So how was the defense?  It was everything I needed it to be and more.   I spent the few weeks before trying to work to construct the presentation so that it would make sense both to my audience and my committee.  I got a draft and recorded it for my chair.  He provided rich feedback that told me I was on the right track and that I needed to refine a few parts to keep the focus forward going.  I practiced a few more times and felt largely ready for the presentation part.  After all, presenting complex ideas to folks that ...

Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes Welcome! This blog post is part 3 and the last installment of my side of an ongoing conversation between myself and Stacey M. Johnson . Since we met a few months ago, we’ve been in an ongoing dialog about some of our favorite issues in teaching and educational technology. We decided to take the dialog public on our blogs. Image source: Chatgpt Want to review past posts? Stacey’s Part 1 –  Dialogs on Teaching: We Need Less Innovation Lance’s Part 1 –  Dialogues on Teaching #1: innovation vs. Innovation Stacey’s Part 2 –  Dialogs on Teaching: We Need More Connection Lance’s Part 2 –  Dialogs on Teaching #2: transformational and transactional learning Stacey's Part 3 –  Dialogs on Teaching: We Need Room to Flourish This is my response to Stacey's last post and my final post in this series...for now.  Stacey, you've done it again—you brought thoughtful and compelling considerations that elevated questions and th...

Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes About 5 months ago, I let folks know that I had a completed draft of the dissertation .  After working on it with my advisor and other committee members, I'm now set up to actually do the defense.  Finally! XKCD It's been a long trek ( Read all about it as I've documented it here at length ) and I know it's not over yet.  There's the defense, the edits from the defense, and then all the formatting BS for publication of the dissertation.  But the key part--the part where I publicly say, "Hey all, I did this, I can justify what I did and why, and here is what I found"--that part is upon us.   And I've been getting the "are you nervous?" and the truth is that I'm not, which I take as a good sign.  I feel confident in my work and in my findings.  I know that I am the expert on my dissertation and that I'm making a contribution to the literature.  I also know I have a strong, thoughtful, and supportive dis...

Estimated Reading Time: 15 minutes The Story So Far :   Welcome! This blog post is part 2 in an ongoing conversation between myself and  Stacey M. Johnson on her blog . Since we met a few months ago, we’ve been in an ongoing dialog about some of our favorite issues in teaching and educational technology. We decided to take the dialog public on our blogs.  Stacey's first post Lance's first post Stacey's second post I thoroughly enjoy these conversations. So, thank you for continuing this. I appreciate your guiding frame: "Does a policy or practice increase our internal capacity and build on the professionalism of our faculty and staff, or does it outsource key functions and fail to consult experts already on campus, devaluing and demoralizing the experience for all of those left behind?"  Applying this to a technology is a thoughtful practice given that many in the ed-tech space push tools that replace community experiences with individual experiences. Wresting T...

Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes Welcome! This blog post is part 1 in an ongoing conversation between myself and Stacey M. Johnson on her blog . Since we met a few months ago, we’ve been in an ongoing dialog about some of our favorite issues in teaching and educational technology. We decided to take the dialog public on our blogs. You can see her first post in the conversation here and she will be posting the next within a week or so of this post. I’ve very excited for this dialogue and public reflection. There’s some delightful, whimsical, and slightly risky in participating in a conversation like this. It’s the kind of thing you read about but not necessarily do. Shout out to Derek Bruff and his Take It or Leave It episode on his podcast, Intentional Teaching , that brought us into conversation!  In reading your post, I had a lot of thoughts and lots of “hmmmm” moments, which I think is part of why we started and continue our dialogue! Like you, I share concern and a di...

Estimated Reading Time: 15 minutes So it's that time again. For those tuning in, each year on my birthday, I do a bit of account and reflecting on the year.  This is year #8.  You can check out previous years below: 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 Let's start with some of the miscellaneous details I've collected over the years here, shall we? Home :  Cranston, RI Relationship status :  Married (10+ years) Cats Owned :  2 (Bear and Pumpkin) Other Pets :  1 mud turtle (MJ, 38'ish years old) Degrees earned : 5 (3 masters, 1 bachelor, 1 associate) Degree working on :  PhD in Higher Education Credits Completed Toward Dissertation : 72 out of 72. Reading since September 13, 2023 : 320 (Latest reads can always be found on  Goodreads ) Work : Director of Faculty Development & Innovation at College Unbound (full-time)  Teaching courses at  North Shore Community College Consulting, Facilitator, Speaker Weight :  225 pounds  Longest Distance R...