All The Young (edu)Punks Jon K. – drunk on electrons

About

Well, I guess I could repeat my introduction here, but you might've read that already. If not, here's a link to my first post on the other blog (which is also this blog). Other than that I'm married, have a daughter who is now 10 and a greyhound. The greyhound is retired; the wife and I are trying to be. I used to sing in a band and play bass in a (different) band as well. Much to my neighbor's chagrin, I've taken up the drums. I have a flickr account that has some pictures of bands that I've seen; I like to think I know how to take a few photos. Prior to that I've spent a lot of my life on a computer. I've connected with other people through usenet (newsgroups) and message boards mostly, but as a younger man I did dabble in BBS connections on an ancient Apple II at a friend's house. Admittedly, it was to play Ultima mostly. My first computer was an Apple IIc.  I used to blog on Livejournal, then decided to delete it because I found myself not leading a very interesting life, nor having much to say.

Of course, that doesn't deter me from adding to the signal-to-noise ratio. I am infinitely interested in multimedia instruction, using narrative techniques (film making, multimedia) in education, leveraging web 2.0 social connections with high quality educational pieces and exploring how web design, e-learning and the various audio-visual techniques all combine to engage learners. As a related topic of interest, I'm very concerned about educators creating aesthetically pleasing educational areas on the web and in LMS's.

My work is  as an educator for Continuing Education at Mohawk College and as a e-Learning Support team member, doing any number of tasks - ranging from editing and creating Flash based videos to documenting processes for future e-learning workers. I primarily teach web design related courses - Searching The Internet Effectively, XML and Fireworks. In 2010 I chose not to continue teaching as I had reached the point where I felt that I couldn't grow any more in the position I held. That's not to say that I don't have any more growth to do, I just don't feel that I have the room to do it. I also feel that I am better served completing my own education rather than helping others complete theirs. Selfish? I suppose.

Currently I have completed the core courses required for my Bachelor's of Education (Adult Education) at Brock University. I have decided that I should take a selection of courses through Distance Education, to see what can be done in the field. I have completed Sociology I at Athabasca University, and will be continuing to focus further on Communication Media courses to augment my personal experience in the field. I do have a Media Arts diploma, which might grant me a Bachelor of Professional Arts - Communication Studies from Athabasca as well. From there, I'd like to pursue a Master's in Educational Technology, or perhaps explore Human Computer Interfaces. Maybe Communication Studies? We'll see where life goes, sometimes it's best not to plan too much.