So out of date!

It's been a year since I added a post. Because the term is ending, and because I have prospective PhD students contacting me about potentially working with me the following year, I have prioritized updating this site.

As an aside, while I identify closely with the Learning Sciences as a field, I believe there are a number of everyday learning experiences that we need to seriously examine. Don't get me wrong - there is still a lot of really interesting work coming out of LS. However, learning takes place in so many ways and at so many different moments that we have before us a near boundless task. Nowadays, we have people foraging for information on the internet but have not really tackled how that information discovery and learning takes place. (Connected Learning and Information Sciences have perhaps done some of the most relevant work here). While there is some research in developmental psychology, we have not done enough to look at learning as it takes place at home. (The LIFE center was an important spotlight for this area, but attention seems to have waned - although some outstanding scholars who have been influenced by work in this area are still continuing the work). We rarely consider learning on the job, even though Northwestern's Institute of Learning Sciences and Xerox PARCs Institute for Research on Learning were based on studying learning in work settings. (I know that there are occasional pieces that talk about it, but they are few and far between in the current LS literature).

I have been thinking on and off again about when life forces you to learn new things because of unexpected changes. I have begun to explore this with families that discover they have a family member diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. It is something I hope to write more about soon. I have one published paper and various conference pieces on that, with a journal article in preparation.

I have been thinking about proposing another book in the future too, but I really need to finish the book I have under contract on how libraries are changing and what dialogue could be developed between the information sciences and the learning sciences. That will get done soon.

Well, that's probably enough for another 12 months when I realize I have fallen way behind on keeping this blog and this website current.