who I am
I am a lowly assistant professor in the School of Communication and Culture (SCC), Royal Roads University (RRU) in Victoria BC. Here is my linkedin page. I am not a communications scholar, however. I am a rhetorician. I took my PhD in an English department as opposed to a speech department. So I specialize in writing, composition, written communications, written texts, principally online discourse.
I am basically a composition instructor. I tend to organize my instruction around writing assignments. In my research I study online discourse, particularly civic discourse and the media that supports it. Also: message campaigning, political or otherwise.
I teach courses like Human Computer Interaction, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Digital Communications, and a course in Rhetoric. I teach both graduates and undergraduates. I also supervise masters theses.
Our provincial mandate is to provide applied and professional instruction. My curricular design principles are these:
- live data–this usually takes the form of case studies that I write myself in cooperation with informants I recruit locally
- primary research–I never assign textbooks. We learn to read, correctly interpret, and apply primary research materials
- relevant tasks–this usually takes the form of case reports, communications plans, or research assignments
I emphasize case-based instruction, problem-based instruction, and learning outcomes that include either academic argument or evidence-based reasoning.
My service and administrative portfolio consists of these:
- I am the head of the Bachelors of Arts in Professional Communication program (BAPC).
- I serve on the RRU Curriculum Committee and the Research Ethics Board (REB).
(Can you tell that I am exceedingly proud of my role as program head for the BAPC?)
This is a spoof of me from 2004. I am portrayed by a professional actor who was one of our students. He is much better looking than I am. But he has my every quirk down cold.
Here is the second half of it:
