So: who needs a teaching technologist?

In the interests of opening the next chapter in my professional life (which is freshly to-be-determined), it might be useful to establish a few things that would assist an extended network of eyes, ears, and references.


Who is this guy?

I am a teaching technologist. A teacher by disposition and at my core, I landed in technology and have made a career of learning things very quickly, distilling them and teaching them back to people at every opportunity, both in official classrooms and on the job. This is where I live.


What does he do well?

Learn. I am voracious about this. It is almost impossible for me to look at something superficially; I have a need to find boundaries and get to essences, and this usually happens very quickly.

Teach. My teaching style is somewhere between craftsman and artist: meticulous and considered, yet often improvised, and delivered with the enthusiasm of abject joy. I learn, I 'splain, I sum up.

Write. This is so much fun it's almost like teaching. In a way it is teaching, whether it's dry and technical (it's an excellent challenge to spruce up technical subjects without losing the point), or persuasive (playing to the infinity of human dynamics), or even fiction (imply the story instead of encasing it in concrete).

Interact. I'm good with people, a gift I get from my mother. Employers seem to like to put me in front of customers, given the choice. I'm calm, to the point, and smile a lot.

Inspire. I seem to have a talent to inspire people with the enthusiasm that comes out in my learning and teaching. I have lost count of students who have taken courses from me, who chase me down years later and take conspicuous pleasure in telling me what they have done with those skills.


What is he looking for?

I am looking, very simply, to bring my strengths to bear in environments which can use them. For the last fifteen years, I have been fortunate to have learned some exquisitely cool technology, then learned to teach it well, and then learned to write the courses myself. And while I am happy to continue to work with WebSphere Portlet Factory and/or Lotus Notes/Domino, I could also be happy learning and teaching many other things. I'm a learner and teacher at my core; the subject is far less important than the act of bringing it to life.

I would love to remain based in Palmer; technology increasingly allows a virtualized location to be as effective as it is cost-effective, and I have already been a remote employee for a number of years now. As for the future, I am very optimistic and excited about the possibilities of remote instructor-led teaching, and have adapted my skills accordingly.


For those who might be willing to help extend my eyes and ears for the search, then, I am open to any number of possible opportunities. Technology, business, education, even pure writing or independent instruction--if it sounds like someone could make use of the skillset described here, I'd love to hear about it. I'm ready to begin again, again.

Kevin has just been unleashed onto the job market.

It was bound to happen sooner or later. In a way I'm surprised it took this long; when the question came up today, I actually couldn't remember ever having been laid off before. Heck, during the Bowstreet days alone there were at least half a dozen times I was ready for the hammer to fall, but amazingly it never did.

What actually stings the most is that this is the job I've wanted my whole career--well, at least the IT job I've wanted my whole IT career. Work with Spoon, live in Alaska, develop with and teach Portlet Factory and Notes/Domino...add in to that the small-business environment with really fantastic people and the promise of plentiful work even in a tight economy (due to the recognized depth of expertise of the team), and it was literally the best and last IT job I wanted to have. The plan was to ride that horse until I just got sick of IT altogether and found a way to teach music theory, critical thinking, riflecraft--you know, the really important subjects. :-)

I certainly don't fault Davalen in this; in the same position I'd have made the same choice. With all the meddling the self-anointed brainiacs have done to the economy over the past several generations, what other outcome did any of us expect? I suspect that the exact timing and degree of impact may have been a bit surprising, but again, it was bound to happen sooner or later. If it just could have been a different job...why this one?

And so again it is time to do what I do worst: sell myself. Gah.

With this last year's move, and job change, and baby, one of the things that we joked about is that we apparently like to do things the hard way. Ah, the irony. So now, with the greatest little motivator that I could ever have wished for to spur me on, I suppose it is a chance to see what I'm really made of.

Look out, RC...

So I've got a lead on a new vocalist for Rock Club.

Check out this freakin' metal face:

"And ze dra-gon comes in ze niiiiiight!"

Seriously, man, she's beltin' out John Hartford here.

So, how's this for a marquee:

-- ROCK CLUB --

Featuring

Säbrë Rüth

King Kamehamayhem

Some Dolt Playing Arpeggios With An EBow

Those Who Actually Know All The Songs

and

Some Poor Sot Forced To Sing Journey

Meet Sabre Ruth

This post belongs in the gratuitous "doting father" category. A few photos of our new contrarian daughter, Sabre Ruth. (If such is technically possible, she is even more opinionated than her mother or father.)

December 13th, just minutes old.



X-treme napping.



I think she's sayin, "I dunno, Daad" on the left,
and it certainly looks like "Talk to the hand" on the right...

See, bein' changed isn't all that bad...

Sabre's a fan of stinkbuggin'.