Preface

This piece of work has been a long time in the making. It began way back in 1993 when I first learned how to MOO and how to manipulate the MOO and how to think out of the box with regard to teaching and learning. Over the years, I've turned that knowledge into hundreds of different forms and while I continue to be enamored with technology for technology's sake, I strive to focus my work with technology from a pedagogical stance.

The particular twist this research has given me, that is a shift from focusing on the technology to focusing on the learning processes, characterizes my fluid development as a teacher and learner. I hunger to better understand how people learn and how context affects that learning process. I need to know this because I know that I can no longer be a transmitter of information. Using a social action perspective, I have to understand how people learn if I am to be a facilitator of learning, not a provider of knowledge.

My intent for this piece is for a paper publication, eventually. This, then, dictates that my genre must be more mainstream and take on the characteristics, to some extent, of a traditional and linear piece of work. Still, I think the tone is more inviting and the content more captivating with the changes in genre, however subtle.

This journey has been an exceptional one although it has had its share of bumps and bruises. This is somehow important and tells me something about learning. To hear what is being told to me is exactly why I am doing this project...I want to hear the story of how three people learned and what that was like for them.