Rowland Gives Keynote Presentation at AERA Annual Meeting

Mary L Kish, 3/16/2008

Gordon Rowland, professor in the communication management and design program and chair of the communications graduate program, will be giving an invited keynote address for the Design and Technology special interest group (SIG) at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2008 Annual Meeting March 27^th in New York City.

His presentation, entitled "Design and Research: Partners in Educational Innovation," will address whether educational research alone is sufficient for innovation to occur. "This is more than a matter of research being basic or applied in nature, or its results being adapted well or poorly in practice," says Rowland. "If our goal is innovation, then design may be an essential, even more productive, form of inquiry."

Rowland’s session will explore design inquiry as everyday practice and legitimate scholarship, and will consider how design and research can become mutually-shaping enterprises in support of educational innovation.

Rowland also co-authored with former graduate student, Barbara Rivera, a report from a study they conducted while she was a student in the communications masters program at Ithaca College.  Entitled "Powerful E-learning: A Preliminary Study of Learner Experiences," the report has recently been published in the March 2008 Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. 

The study was conducted using phone interviews with adult learners pursuing undergraduate degrees through e-learning coursework. Among other things, the study suggests that meaningful social interaction and emotions may be important components in powerful learning experiences, and that powerful learning can indeed occur in e-learning environments.

Originally published in Department of Strategic Communication: Rowland Gives Keynote Presentation at AERA Annual Meeting.