Graduate Student, Instructional Systems
College of Education
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Dr. Alison Carr-Chellman
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About
I am a student of Instructional Systems with an interest in the myriad ways we learn, both in and out of school, all life long. My professional experience has involved designing online instruction for k-12, researching the use of technology and video-games in higher education and discovering learning structures in an unstructured setting.
Wenger's (1991) idea of the river and the mountain shaping each other resonates with me and I see it manifest wherever learning happens - in other words, everywhere. My dissertation investigated the lived experience of participants in a drop-in knitting group from a socio-cultural perspective. I found that identities and the juxtaposition of inter-group variables created teachers, learners and a dynamic structure, which arose out of the group's activity. In addition, my research added to an understanding of how the public library as an institution may be instrumental in supporting informal learning by providing affinity spaces (Gee, 2004) to learners/participants/practitioners.
