About

Last Updated on Sunday, 18 March 2012 17:06 Written by gz Tuesday, 27 December 2011 09:30

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Welcome!

I am an Assistant Professor of Educational Technology at Western Oregon University. I work in the Teacher Education Division of the College of Education. I have a PhD in Technical Communication & Rhetoric.

Gregory Zobel

 

Teaching

Most of my teaching takes place in one program: Master of Science in Education: Information Technology. The majority of courses are graduate courses and taught online through Moodle. As I am new to the program, I look forward to teaching a variety of courses, undergraduate and graduate.

Research

My dissertation centered on the intersections of usability, user experience, mobile tourism (tourists using mobile devices), and Deleuze's assemblage concept.

Given WOU's emphasis on teaching and teacher training, I've modified my interests to better suit the teaching and research environment at Western. My research interests are still focused on users and UX, mobile devices, and assemblage theory; however, I plan to emphasize these in the contexts of online graduate education, Moodle, and open educational resources. Currently, these plans are still loose because I want to develop a research agenda which integrates with the students aka users, the institution, and my own research interests. Frankly, that's going to take some time to learn the ground. As that happens, I plan to work some dissertation materials into articles.

Professional development and research training for graduate students, especially doctoral students in rhetoric, composition, and technical communication, interests me and has interested me since 2009. Collaborating with Dr. Rebecca Rickly of Texas Tech University, Dr. Carole Clark Papper of Hofstra University, and Dr. Derek Ross of Auburn University, we are in our third year of surveying doctoral students in North America. Our research surveys graduate students' research and grant writing training, confidence, and experience. The research is a longitudinal project intended to last ten years.

Service

I am waiting to see where and how I can best serve WOU, my program, division, and college. I hope to become involved with some sort of writing-based or writing-centered initiative.