Facilitating and Sustaining Adult Learning and Motivation Through Website Design: A Cycle of Inquiry for K--12 Educators

In this capstone project I present a website model that uses technology to promote discourse among educators.

With the goal of providing new opportunities for professional development, given the constraints of time, space and resources, the content on this website is accessible through various forms of media: video clips, selected readings, resources and interactive blogs.

The interactive blog invites participants to share their reflections of the content and engage in dialogue with others.

In short, this capstone goal was to build a virtual professional learning community and to examine the experiences and interactions of participants.

Even though creating a website requires acquiring new technical skills, it is from the educator's perspective that this capstone is derived.

The process of constructing the website was reflective in nature.

As a matter of record, I recorded my experiences of exploration, analysis and refinement, as a novice creating a website at the grass roots level.

It is through the lens of adult learning principles and motivation theory that I viewed this project.

The second step of the project was to field test the website.

Two distinct groups of educators were identified and invited to view and respond to the website.

Feedback from the respondents and my own continuous exploration and analysis of the website informed ongoing refinements.

It became clear over time that the website construction was as much a process as it was a product.

I conclude this study by discussing the leadership implications of this and possible future directions.