Brendan Guenther's Portfolio

While I was studying learning organizations in EAD802 I found many opportunities to connect the theory and ideas to my professional practice. The format of the course included many hands-on exercises and activities. In addition to providing an introduction to the work scholars such as Peter Senge, Chris Agyris, and Ettienne Wenger there were many practical suggestions offered. The primary text for the course is the fifth discipline field book (Senge, et-al, 1994) which translates Senge (1990) into tangible suggestions and exercises that are broadly relevant to people working in organizations.

Studying adult learning resulted in interesting spillovers from the topics I knew we'd be covering. Many of the 'differences' that adults demand from educational systems to enable their learning also potentially benefit all learners. Studying adult learning therefore, calls for studying learning broadly, and challenges us to focus more on learning then on the practice of instruction. Adult learning also reminds us that although we are educators, people are very able to learn on their own and many thrive outside traditional formal learning environments.

Continuing my lifelong learning journey in the summer of 2006, I again turned to my profession for inspiration when considering my course options. I chose to enroll in EAD861 Adult Learning because many of the faculty I'd worked with over the years were teaching students in online Masters programs intended for professionals. I'd been introduced through a community of practice in our office and my own professional organizations to the concepts of andragogy and understood that adult learners may have different needs than traditional students.

Because my interest in the HALE program derived so closely from my work, and I was still unsure which courses were 'required' for the program my next choice as a lifelong learner derived from my professional practice. Working with information technology for MSU's Virtual University means life comes at you fast. We are usually in the middle of a few major technology retooling efforts at any given time.

Taking EAD805 Higher Education Administration was a great start for my graduate work. I made strong connections between the material and my professional work. Birnbaum(1998) provided four excellent lenses into the dynamics of a higher education institution. I was able to frame the way departments and faculty peer-groups operate differently then operational wings of the university. These ideas were most useful in committee and project work where more than one social form is in play at once.

My career changed directions in November of 2003 when my unit's director reclassified my position to include the responsibilities of an Assistant Director. Up until that point I had been primarily an information technologist, although working for MSU's Virtual University Project had exposed me to a wide variety of issues within the enterprise of higher education. I had been supervising a technical team since 2001 and provided unit-wide technology leadership as the Virtual University's Lead Programmer.

I selected EAD805 Higher Education Administration as my first course since the course description matched my curiosity in how a university worked. At the time I was more concerned with developing mental models and social theories that would help me to better grasp what I was already percieving at work. I joined MSU's Virtual University within two years of it's founding. As part of a startup unit at a university that is charged with implementing a new university wide-initiative we had a tendency to move very fast.