Upcoming Releases

The Great MacGuffin: Chasing the Mysteries of a Self-directed Society

Leona Patlik, M.A. Candidate, Educational Technology

A MacGuffin (or McGuffin) is a term that is largely credited to Alfred Hitchcock, the cinematic auteur. A MacGuffin is the object that everyone is chasing after in a suspense film, but where the motives behind the quest and the exact nature of the object of desire are unknown (like the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark). In her debut book, which is also her graduate studies project in Educational Technology, Leona Patlik gets to the root of the elusive (and yet desirable and sought after) strategies for self-directed learning. A firm believer that the best learning strategy is one where people have the motivation and skills to learn on their own, Patlik chases down and discovers the secret behind this elusive mystery.

The production of this title has been suspended indefinitely.

Educational Technology: The Science of Mediocrity

Raymond G. Taylor, M.A., Educational Technology

As a more accessible follow up to Taylor’s first book, Learning After the End of Knowledge (ISBN 978-3-639-02487-6), Educational Technology: The Science of Mediocrity is a take-no-prisoners look at instructional design and the often dismal failure of the implementation of technology in education. This work seeks to answer a very simple question that has been avoided for generations: why is content destined for educational purposes so boring, and ultimately ineffective?

Borrowing a neo-pragmatic approach from contemporary philosophy of science, Taylor makes a claim that the theories that inform educational technology are not only bad science but will never produce effective learning as long as the focus is on the content.

Planned for a June, 2012 release