Chris Mahoney:
Creative Writer, Independent Consultant
Since the main audience for this missive is the prospective student, rather than write a self-aggrandizing or self-promotional biography, it seems more prudent to offer forth a reflection piece—a portrayal in the vein I wish I could have read when I was pondering enrollment in the educational technology doctoral program at UNC. My hope in taking this tack is that those who read this particular epistle might find information, understanding, and a more concrete grasp on the diaphanous discipline they are investigating.
As I sit here, almost exactly a year after completion of my prolonged stay at UNC, and reflect on both the process and the results of those endeavors, I am amazed at just how much I learned while there. Educational Technology, at its best is a comprehensive disciple that gleans (some say, steals) the best theories and practices of other disciplines. At worst, it’s a protracted exercise in tools exploitation and management. I chose to take the former, more circuitous path throughout my studies and thus, looking back, spent an awful lot of time painting details into a very large canvas. Although I didn’t know what scene I was painting at the time—or even in which genre, for that matter—I diligently filled in those details with the colors and textures I thought appropriate. It is only though the distancing of time that the entire painting (and the effect, I suppose, of the artistic interpretations) comes clearly into focus.
For myriad reasons, I have not yet taken the more accepted path of graduates and found a position within academia or even Corporate America. Instead, I have chosen to pursue private consulting as a way of freeing up as much time as possible to complete a manuscript I researched and planned to write with all the free time I’d hoped graduate studies would allow me—time which, for obvious reasons, never materialized. Most of my consulting energies have gone toward helping several small businesses streamline their many systems (i.e., human performance systems, computer systems, inventory systems, training systems and the like) and thus meet their long-term goals. Until I’d mentioned those goals, by the way, they had not come into the consciousness of any of the leaders of the businesses for whom I’ve worked this past year.
Toward the goal of helping those leaders and the businesses they run become as effective and efficient as possible, the knowledge, and theories I learned in front-end analysis; gap analysis; human performance systems development; novice vs. expert performance and training needs; various training structures, including instructional design and message design (Dr. Linda Lohr was of infinite help in understanding these); as well as skills in computer systems development and networking (Dr. Gall is a master of this arena) have proven to be indispensable in my making a positive difference when and where I have plied the skills I learned in the Ed Tech program at UNC. I mention this because these bodies of knowledge, theories, and skill sets are the practical nuts and bolts of educational technology.
Writing the book has been a difficult yet rewarding process: The difficulty has come from my needing to unlearn the structured and somewhat succinct writing style demanded of academic writing in order to write as ‘creatively’ as the genre in which I am writing requires. The rewards of the process have come both from creating something and watching something come into being—seemingly simultaneously. In one sense, I am a master of the book, the body of research, and the story it encompasses, yet at the same time, it is the master of me (which is true, I suppose, of the dissertational process as well). Altogether, creating this book has been a fun, fascinating, and infinitely rewarding endeavor, but I’m far from finished.
The research for and writing of this book brings to the fore one of the most rewarding and stimulating aspects of my doctoral studies: qualitative research methodologies. In this realm, Dr. Maria Lahman and Dr. Betsy Perlman were both a wealth of knowledge and a huge help. I have used the skills I learned during my studies in qualitative research (and the understandings I gleaned about the ethical and moral dilemmas inherent in this type of research) while studying historical documents and photographs, interviewing pertinent persons, and ciphering out truths and themes from the plethora of data I reviewed for the book. These skills have also proved to be invaluable in understanding the complex problems inherent in the small businesses I’ve observed and attempted to make better.
The other two skills I learned during my graduate studies were critical thinking and project management. Although I possessed both of these skills before entering into the Ed Tech program, my time in the program further honed those skills. Their usefulness in the ‘real’ world cannot be over-emphasized.
On a more personal note: While the book has been nearing completion, I have also been spending time carefully considering of what I want to do next. This process, too, has proven to be an exercise in contrasts. It would be a natural progression from my academic studies to continue to pursue the main question that fueled both my drive through higher education and my dissertational research, which was, simply put, “Why can’t we all just get along?” While both my graduate studies and my dissertational research answered many of the ancillary questions pertinent to that main query, each enterprise cultivated more questions than it satisfied (although I project that, if done right, that paradox will be true for any competent graduate student.) In hopes of finding deeper answers to my queries, I have continued to delve into that most perilous of arenas: the human psyche as it manifests in group dynamics and have continued to expand my focus to other thinking and other bodies of research in hopes of ciphering out clues that will unlock the mysteries. Mostly, however, I have come to the conclusion that, due mainly to each person’s innate self-centeredness (the first law of economics is, after all, that we each act in our own best interest), any concerted efforts spent in that realm will be largely ineffectual in the grander scheme of things. Therefore, while I’ll continue to attempt to be of service to those who want to evolve as well as glean whatever they might from the knowledge and wisdom I’ve learned thus far, being able to ‘package’ that knowledge in any kind of deliverable format that I can, in good faith, stand behind would ultimately prove fruitless at best and disingenuous at worst.
I took a very unconventional path through the field of Educational Technology, one that put me at odds with many of the mainstream thinkers within the discipline. However, I remain convinced that the human element is the most crucial aspect of the educational continuum—by this I mean getting the right knowledge to the person(s) desirous of attaining it, in ways that most effectively and efficiently (and attractively) convey it. Time alone will tell if I was ahead of my time . . . or out to lunch.
I hope those of you who chose to explore Educational Technology find what you are looking for along that path. It is a fascinating journey with many expansive and inspiring vistas that are well worth trekking toward, but there are an equal number of arduous and perilous ascents along the way. For me, the journey was worth the efforts expended, but I had no idea when I began (or even as I neared completion) just how arduous those efforts would be. But just like climbing any of Colorado’s magnificent 14,000 foot peaks, oftentimes, one is so tired at the summit it is difficult to enjoy the view, and it is only upon reflection back at base camp afterward that the glory and worthiness of the pursuit comes clearly into focus.