User:Jrradney



= Radney's Profile = 

Professional Background
I have been involved in education of one sort or another for almost all of my adult life. Early in my university career, I was engaged by the Jefferson County School District (Colorado) to teach guitar for their adult education program. Just before graduating, I was engaged by the university I was attending (then called Rockmont College) to tutor students in Koine Greek studies. Shortly after beginning graduate school (UTA) in linguistics, I was engaged as a graduate teaching assistant. My responsibilities were the teaching of academic writing courses to non-native speakers of English (what were then called EFL courses). For three years (1980-1983), I taught two sections each semester, alternating between the teaching of short essays and the teaching of (longer) research essay writing. In 1984, I relocated to British Columbia, Canada, where my wife and I began learning a First Nations language of the area (Tsilhqot'in, a.k.a. Chilcotin) with a view to curriculum materials and translation program development, working for SIL, International. In 1994, we completed this assignment and were reassigned to Dallas, TX, where I began again to teach. In 1995, I was engaged to help students learn a newly-developed software data management application (LinguaLinks), and I re-entered the doctoral program in humanities I had set aside in 1984. In the fall of 1995, I was hired again by UTA as a graduate teaching assistant, this time teaching introductory linguistics courses.

After completing my doctoral coursework in 1997, I returned to Canada, where I began teaching data management and linguistics at the Canada Institute of Linguistics (CanIL), located on the campus of Trinity Western University (TWU). Over the next ten years, I taught data management, field methods, advanced phonology, grammar, advanced grammar, ethnography, language and society, language survey, translation, survey of linguistic theories, and philosophy of language courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. After receiving my doctorate in 1999, I also began to teach part-time with the philosophy department of TWU. From that time until 2006, I taught both semesters of the introduction to philosophy, as well as critical thinking, ethics, and philosophy of mind courses.

Beginning in 2002, I was asked to design and offer online courses for the philosophy department. I designed and offered the introductions, critical thinking, and ethics in an online format for multiple semesters. Later, I was asked to design some courses for the linguistics department for online and blended delivery. I developed the philosophy of language and ethnography courses at this time.

In 2006, I moved to the interior of British Columbia, where I have since lived. For a couple of years, I taught blended learning courses for TWU/CanIL, and then, occasional courses for Thompson Rivers University. Over the past year, I have been developing a business to support students engaged in online university education to have greater success in their courses (Paradox Educational Services).

Education
I completed baccalaureate and masters degrees from Colorado Christian University (1976) and The University of Texas at Arlington (1982), respectively, in linguistics. My doctorate (also from UTA) is in humanities, with my primary area of study in linguistics and my secondary studies in philosophy. My masters thesis on clause constituents in Koine Greek was published in Occasional Papers in Text and Translation, and my doctoral dissertation was a comparison and synthesis of the linguistic theory of Kenneth Pike (tagmemics) with the phenomenology of Paul Ricoeur. It was complete in 1999.

Professional
I am interested in a wide range of disciplines--this is behind the vast number of different courses I have taught over the years, but my chief interests are in an integrated exploration of language and communication and the lived experience and expression of community, communication, and communion. In short, my professional interests are integrated linguistics, phenomenology, philosophical hermeneutics, and the use of Moodle and Web 2.0 technologies in education.

Personal
When I am not teaching, I am a bit "at loose ends." However, I play guitar and sing, watch sports, read considerably, and exercise regularly. I love animals and rural life, and help my wife with our gardening efforts as I can.

Projects
I am attempting to increase operations of a business supporting online university education. I call the business Paradox Educational Services, and the service provided is academic coaching. Those of you who are interested in how I am developing a sense of my own coaching may want to read my blog.

In the past year, I have become involved with the excellent online education organization, Integrating Technology for Active Life-long Learning (IT4ALL). If you want you can meet the team here.

I also am learning to facilitate WikiEducator workshops. For an example, see eL4C41. If you would like to request for me to facilitate a workshop in WikiEducator (or on any of the projects on this page that interests you), please leave a note in the WikiNeighbour comments section at the bottom of this page or in the discussion page.


 * Moodle Projects
 * Collaboration Across Disciplines
 * Philosophy Networks
 * Minority Language Programs

Web Resources
I am focused upon developing the use of the following Web 2.0 resources in education:


 * http://diigo.com


 * Enables storing of compiled research online.
 * Enables private and public group research and discussion.
 * Stores highlighting and commentary on Web pages.


 * http://docs.google.com


 * Enables individual and collaborative writing using a variety of media.
 * Enables collaborative presentation and discussion.


 * http://plus.google.com


 * Enables interaction collaboratively in a mediated environment more varied than previous IM tools.
 * Integrates with other non-linear tools for examining concepts, building understanding, etc. 


 * http://skype.com


 * Enables text chatting and file sharing in small to medium-sized groups.
 * Enables audio discussion in combination with text chatting for up to 25 participants.
 * Enables video consultation, screen sharing, and collaboration one-on-one. Recent PC release allows up to 6 people in video interaction.



Important Diigo Groups
These are groups within Diigo that I belong to. I have joined several of these groups in-progress, and I have created some groups, primarily as places where my students can collaborate to common purpose. "My Diigo Groups"

WikiFriends
I would like to ask all my WikiEducator friends to add their signatures in this section. Although I am trying to be a good WikiNeighbour to all those around me, I am not always alert to changes on pages. If you want me to add your page to my watchlist on a longer term basis than just a workshop that I may be facilitating, please leave your signature in this area, and I will try to monitor your work regularly.

Sandbox
/My sandbox/

On the linked page above, I hope to develop some tutorials for miscellaneous computer tasks that users have requested.

Reflections
In this section, I want to be able to reflect upon the experience of contributing to open education resources through the WikiEducator site.

I very much enjoyed helping the partcipants in the recent "WikiEducator Gives Back" workshop (eL4C41) as a co-facilitator, working in a group led by Patricia Schlicht. I found the process of individualized discovery to be productive and flexible, allowing a record number of participants to proceed through the curriculum and to interact. I also found Benjamin Stewart's WiZiQ sessions to be helpful, both from the standpoint of actual help to students and from that of community-building.

It remains to be seen whether collaborative relationships will have been initiated during the workshop; a 10-day online session may not be sufficient for initiating long-term relationships, especially when so much of the discovery is individual and relationships tend to be one-on-one (when questions are asked and then answered, or when someone takes the initiative to comment on someone else's work) rather than groups/teams. Of course, relationships that pre-dated the workshop developed well during the workshop, but this might be expected in any sort of group where people know each other before engaging in collective tasks.

= Favourite Quotes =

There are several quotes that resonate deeply with who I am as a person. Some of them are guideposts on my path; others are more merely interesting tidbits that I chew on from time to time. "'Learning is not a transfer of something by someone to someone, but is a relationship. Moreover, the relationship is considered to be reciprocal. Such a point of view seems at hopeless odds with the distinction of subject and object considered essential to science' (292)." Le Guin places this as a translator's note to a document "written by" a fictional people who 'might be going to have lived a long, long time from now in northern California' (Front matter unpaginated). The comments relates to a man who will have learned arboriculture with his uncle and with trees of the orchard. It claims that such learning does not consist in the transference of information or a skill, but rather is a cooperative activity not entirely initiated by one participant upon another (or others), but relational at its very core (Le Guin, Ursula. Always Coming Home. New York, NY: Bantam, 1987). "'The paradox is that the very people that are the easiest to categorize, to command and to dominate are the last people we want to work with.'" Seth Godin recently wrote the quote above in a blog post. "'Everybody loves change until it comes to the change part.'" Alan Kay made the comment above in a Math 2.0 session online. "‘Teaching is even more difficult than learning. We know that; but we rarely think about it. And why is teaching more difficult than learning? Not because the teacher must have a larger store of information, and have it always ready. Teaching is more difficult than learning because what teaching calls for is this: to let learn. The real teacher, in fact lets nothing else be learned than—learning. His conduct, therefore, often produces the impression that we properly learn nothing from him, if by “learning” we now suddenly understand merely the procurement of useful information. The teacher is ahead of his apprentices in this alone, that he has still far more to learn than they—he has to learn to let them learn. The teacher must be capable of being more teachable than the apprentices. The teacher is far less assured of his ground than those who learn are of theirs. If the relation between the teacher and the taught is genuine, therefore, there is never a place in it for the authority of the know-it-all or the authoritative sway of the official’ (Martin Heidegger, What Is Called Thinking?, 15)." Heidegger understands the difference between teaching as a communication of information or facts about the world and teaching learners how to understand the world. Heidegger’s true teacher must teach by example, by being a passionate learner of the world. While this quote may be seen as unremarkable, it is worth noting that he made this observation (though not translated until 1968) in 1954. "'Education is a self organizing system, where learning is an emergent phenomenon.'" Recently posited by Sugatra Mitra in a TED talk (Sep. 2010). "'Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.'" Attributed to Clay Shirky (date unknown).

'Whatever you are, be a good one.'

Abraham Lincoln

'A theory should be as simple as possible, but no simpler'

Albert Einstein

= Feedback &amp; Notes from my WikiNeighbours =

Could you please give me some suggestions for organisation and improvement?


 * Thank you Radney for certifying me wikibuddy.Please do keep monitoring my page as i'm bringing up some monographs soon under the banner of "child education &amp; development programmes." I've just completed the survey &amp; now in the process of analyzing the data.Meanwhile if you have any suggestions regarding the improvement of my content pages, please provide so.Thanks satarupa 1:53, 11th August 2010 (UTC)
 * Hi Radney,this is Satarupa here.Your userpage seems really fascinating.Honestly speaking i've tried to imitate it while developing mine.I'm really moved by your versality.I've added just few pictures in my page which are all my creation in water &amp; oil medium.Would love to hear your comments.Thanks.
 * Hi Radney, Satarupa again,thanks for your comments.Till date i didn't use any technology to make my paintings digital directly.But could you suggest how can this be developed.Moreover so far i had been editing manually cards drawn by my sweet buddies who are spastic &amp; then used to circulate them among friends &amp; relatives for selling.This is the practise i had been doing for last 10 years since my inception as part time volunteer at that NGO.Now i want to showcase their paintings also so that they can have their own recognizance.In fact you would really be surprised finding that some of them draw by their legs.Thanks.

As of Day 8 in the eL4C41 workshop (30 July 2010), participants are being requested to discuss this page at length using the discussion page. I have provided a direct link to my talk page, but I also want to encourage my WikiNeighbours to contribute directly in this part of my user page, when they have short comments and do not intend such comments to spark prolonged discussions. Sometimes people will want to look over this site and make some comment or editing suggestions that would be hard for me to process if I had to navigate to a separate page to see what was referenced.'''Thanks for your kindness! --Jrradney 21:58, 30 July 2010 (UTC)'''


 * Hi Radney, Thanks for the tip on how to put in the scroll bar. I shall try it and see if i can succeed.KalpanaKalpana Gupte 14:53, 2 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Hello Radney, Thank you for certifying me as wikibuddy.--[[User:Rgsbabu1|Suresh Babu]] 04:27, 5 August 2010 (UTC)
 * More notes from my WikiNeighbours may be added here.