Growth

Growth and Professional Development

For a list of activities since December, 2008 see my posts in these categories:

For what I did earlier, before I put my teaching portfolio online in this blog, here’s the text from my old teaching portfolio:

I actively pursue my own professional growth and development through professional associations, conferences, reading, online courses, and active research-and-development experiments. I am also presently investigating the feasibility and desireability of returning to a formal Ph.D. degree program in either Education (Curriculum & Technology) or Business.(strategic management and business economics).

Current Activities and Directions

My current professional growth efforts are directed towards three fronts: technology, teaching, and economics.

Technology.

I’m improving and expanding my technological skills and knowledge in four ways. First, I am actively taking self-study online courses in HTML, CSS, PHP, Linux Administration, and other topics offered by the Association for Computing Machinery, of which I am a member. Second, I’m actively experimenting with doing new tasks technologically, particularly in the area of web development. I have a five-machine network including some web servers installed in my home on which I install primarily open-source software and develop new webpages and web applications. I build the machines myself. Third, I actively read and try to stay abreast of technology developments. I do this mostly through my daily RSS news feeds about open-source software and other technology. Finally, I have attended several conferences dealing with technology in education. In particular, in the last three years I have attended or am committed to attending:

  • CIT 2008, by the League for Innovation in Community College, Salt Lake City, UT, Oct. 2008 (I am scheduled to present)
  • CIT 2007, by the League for Innovation in Community College, Nashville, TN, Oct. 2007
  • CIT 2006, by the League for Innovation in Community College, Charlotte,NC Nov. 2006
  • Angel Users Conference, 2008, Cincinnati, OH, May 2008 (I presented)
  • Michigan Blackboard Users Group Conference, Mt. Pleasant, MI, October, 2007

Teaching and Rhetorical Skills.

I have three primary means of pursuing development of my teaching skills. I read extensively on the topic. My reading is supplemented by my membership in the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education and the two journals they publish. Finally, I conferences listed above for technology also are devoted to teaching. I have also attended teaching economics conferences at:

  • Unveristy of Akron, October, 2004 (I presented)
  • Western Michigan University, May 2005
  • Bowling Green State University, March 2005

The topics of greatest interest to me regarding teaching are assessment, online teaching, and story-telling.

Economics

I keep my knowledge of economics current and growing through reading and conferences. My normal nightime reading regimen includes economics theory books, economic and political histories, and philosophy. My daily regimen of news from the Web and internet sources, includes over 20 different economics news sites and blogs. In particularly useful blogs are Economics RoundtableAngry BearAdam Smith’s Lost Legacy, and Brad Delong. I also attend economics association conferences. In the past six years I have attended:

  • Canadian Economics Association annual conference, Toronto, Ontario, May, 2009
  • American Economic Association annual ASSA meetings, Chicago, IL, January, 2007
  • Canadian Economics Association annual conference, Hamilton, Ontario, May, 2005
  • Canadian Economics Association annual conference, Toronto, Ontario, May, 2004
  • Canadian Economics Association annual conference, Ottawa, Ontario, May, 2003

I also returned to Wayne State University in 2005 and took two courses in the Ph.D. program: refresher courses in Advance Micro Theory and Industrial Organiation. Part of my motivation for returning to take courses was to explore the possibility of formally returning to complete a dissertation and my Ph.D. After discussions with the faculty, I decided that the Wayne State department no longer had sufficient faculty interested in the topics which I wished to pursue (economics of patents and open source software). I therefore decided to discontinue those studies.

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