Hey, everyone --
I'm Mike Tardiff, a first year master's student at State in the Writing and Rhetoric department. I'm a recent transplant from Bangor, Maine and am excited about teaching, especially with technology. That's me and my girlfriend, Laura, on the coast of Maine circa 2008.
My professional/educational background is really rooted in creative non-fiction. I originally thought myself to be an aspiring journalist but fell out of love when I realized writing sports recaps and stories wouldn't impart the sort of change and impact I was hoping to achieve with my life. I always thought, in the back of my mind, I'd like to teach but never knew where to start...
When my mother lost her factory job and went back to school at community college, I watched her undergo a transformation. She was becoming newly literate in so many ways.
My hope, one day, is to help people like mom get a grip on what can be a scary world by teaching writing at the community college level. Technology can be particularly frightening and I hope by taking this class I can learn new ways to leverage technology for pedagogical purposes.
Because I want to help non-traditional, adult learners, I know my own literacy with technology will prove to be an important skill-set. My hope is to explore and examine the scholarship regarding technology and think about effective ways to teach digitally. This last semester a classmate and I used inDesign as a platform for teaching visual rhetoric. Our work made me start thinking about how malleable the digital world and software really can be, if we allow it.
I have no doubt this course will challenge me since I'm fairly new to the world of pedagogy, but I look forward to investigating the tensions of digital teaching environments and studying the current trends in digitized pedagogy. Talking about digital environments and technology is pretty new territory for me, but I know it'll be healthy and worthwhile to build a new knowledge base.
When I'm not doing academic stuff, I like sports, animals, short fiction, photography and food.
I look forward to working with all of you.
Thanks for posting Mike! Glad to hear about your focus on adult learners and technology. It could be a good issue to focus on for the "teachnology" statement and, perhaps, for the major course design/redesign project too.
ReplyDeleteMike, my father-in-law went through an experience similar to your mother's (as have many others). As our economy keeps changing, providing literacy with new technologies will become increasingly important. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on using technology to prepare adult learners for an entirely new work environment.
ReplyDeleteHello Mike,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. Technology can be frightening for some students (particularly non-traditional students). A method to assuage the transition into the "technological academic world" would be helpful. I can't wait to hear more about your area of interest projections.
I'm looking forward to working with you as well!