Graduate Work
This portfolio serves as evidence of the intentional transformation of learning theory into purposeful design, facilitated by the strategic application of technology.
Designing Meaningful Learning Experiences Through Technology
This paper examines how Horton, Mott and Wiley, Siemens, and Lave approach meaningful learning in technology-rich environments. It compares purposeful e-learning, open learning networks, learner independence, and communities of practice. My analysis considers both the strengths and limits of each perspective, especially the balance between student choice and the structure learners need. I also connect these ideas to practical ways technology can support inquiry, discussion, collaboration, and stronger understanding in social studies.
Learning Goals Through Learning Theory
This project examines one flow-diagram learning goal through behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and sociocultural theory. Comparing the theories shows how the same task can be designed around immediate feedback, mental models, authentic problem solving, or collaboration. The project explains how scaffolding, guided practice, peer discussion, and revision can work together to make learning more intentional. It also shows why instructional design should consider not only what learners produce, but how they build understanding.
Design Reflection: Emerging-Tech Artifacts & Revisions
This presentation documents the design of two technology-supported learning artifacts from planning through revision. It focuses on how feedback shaped the work, how design choices were reconsidered, and how reflection improved the final products. Rather than treating technology as a finished solution, the project presents it as part of an iterative process that includes testing, listening, revising, and making purposeful decisions about how learners will use each artifact.
Making History
This digital storytelling project brings together historical content, creativity, neuroscience, cognitive load, group cognition, and technology. It considers how learners move beyond simply receiving information to researching, interpreting, collaborating, and creating meaning. The project also compares individual thinking with shared knowledge construction and shows how intentional digital storytelling can support deeper engagement, clearer communication, and more thoughtful connections to history.
Academic Focus
Research
My academic focus is the connection between learning, design, and technology. As a sixth-grade social studies teacher with six years of classroom experience, I look at new ideas through a practical lens: Will this help students understand the past, ask stronger questions, and connect history to the world around them?
Augmented reality and immersive 3D environments can make abstract places, artifacts, and events easier for students to explore. Micro:bit programming offers a different kind of learning experience by asking students to design, test, and revise a solution. Both approaches make learning active, but they serve different purposes. AR can build context and curiosity, while programming can strengthen problem solving and creativity. I see the greatest value when technology supports a clear social studies goal instead of becoming the lesson itself.
In my classroom, I would compare these tools by asking what each one helps students do best. AR may help students examine a historical setting from different perspectives. Micro:bit projects may help students model systems, interpret information, or create a response to a real-world problem. I also have to consider access, time, student readiness, and whether the activity helps students think more deeply. After six years of teaching sixth grade, I have learned that engagement is important, but meaningful learning matters more.
Academic Honors
My graduate work has strengthened my interest in instructional design and classroom technology. I compare tools by their purpose, not by how new or impressive they seem. AI and other digital tools can support brainstorming, feedback, and creation, but they also require careful attention to accuracy, student privacy, accessibility, and responsible use. My goal is to design learning experiences that give students structure while still allowing them to explore, collaborate, and make thoughtful choices.
As a social studies teacher, I value technology when it helps students investigate evidence, understand multiple perspectives, and explain their thinking. I do not see technology as a replacement for teaching or relationships. I see it as one tool in a larger learning design—one that should make history more understandable, purposeful, and connected to students' lives.