Randall Dunn has dabbled in multiple disciplines within the field of education, notably special education, educational technology, and theories of leadership and learning. He earned his doctorate from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom with primary research in how professional educators form communities in online environments. His master's degree is in the area of special education, focusing on transition services for mild disabilities. He also holds a teaching licensure in 4-8 regular education and special education (mental retardation, learning disabilities, emotional disturbance). He has taught in both regular and special education classrooms and has enjoyed working with children of all learning abilities and needs. Randall spent five years working as a project manager in the software development industry, using the latest in technology. This strengthened his primary research interest - the use of technology in educational organizations. He has performed original research in the area of online communication and professional educator virtual community formation. Randall has recently taken on the role of coordinating the newly created M.Ed. program in educational technology. He currently teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in educational technology, post-secondary transition for students with special needs, teaching social studies in the elementary school, historical and philosophical foundations of education, and middle education curriculum.
Scholarly Presentations
Entering the Virtual Teachers' Lounge: Social Connectedness amoung Professional Educators in Virtual Environment, Educational Social Software for Context-Aware Learning: Collaboration Methods and Human Interaction (2010)
Virtual Worlds and Student Teaching Communities: Envisioning learning communities in virtual environments for distributed student teaching. (with David E. Holder and Debra B. Hodgson), The Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (2009)
Recent technological advances have afforded great opportunities for educators to meet the increasing demands of...
The Virtual Teacher's Lounge: How Teachers Meaningfully Connect Through Online Networks, Sixth International Conference on Networked Learning (2008)
This study seeks to illuminate an understanding of naturally forming online communities of professional educators...
The Efficacy of Service-Learning as Practical Experiences for Pre-service Special Education Teachers (with Christopher K. Shon), Council for Exceptional Children (2007)
This presentation examines recent research performed on a post-secondary transition program for students with moderate...
Family Involvement in Korean Special Education (with Christopher K. Shon), Virginia CEC (2007)
This presentation, made at the Virginia CEC, focused on recent qualitative research performed in the...
Professional Presentations
The Use of LiveText as the Primary Collaboration Tool for Hybrid Methods Courses, The 2008 LiveText Collaboration Conference (2008)
The challenge of using any new system for learning (technologically based or otherwise) is determining...
Harnessing Online Communities for Educational Practice, Association of Christian Schools International (2007)
The rise of the use of the Internet and the subsequent connections among peoples located...
Integrating Technology into Pedagogical Practice, Association of Christian Schools International (2007)
This presentation focuses on the the foundations of considering integrating technology into instruction, the various...
IDEA 2004: Current Special Education Practice, Association of Christian Schools International (2007)
This presentation focuses on the fundamental principles of special education, their origins and their specific...
Special Education & IDEA 2004, Faculty Publications and Presentations (2007)
This presentation was made at the Liberty University School of Law on October 22, 2007,...
Community Presentations
Using Clickers in Higher Education, Center fo Teaching Excellence Faculty Technology Boot Camp (2012)
Using Smart Boards in Higher Education, Center for Teaching Excellence Faculty Technology Boot Camp (2012)
Unpublished Manuscripts
Entering the Virtual Teacher’s Lounge: The Efficacy of Community in Computer-Mediated Communication Based Environments for Professional Educators, Faculty Dissertations (2008)
This study seeks to illuminate an understanding of naturally forming online communities of professional educators...
Professional Development and Educational Technology Integration, Faculty Publications and Presentations (2004)
This paper examines a structure for the implementation of technological innovations using business approaches to...
Can Virtual Teacher Communities be a Reality?, Faculty Publications and Presentations (2003)
In this paper I will discuss the effects of online communication on social connectivity and...
An Examination of Online Qualitative Research Methods, Faculty Publications and Presentations (2002)
This paper is meant as an exploration into possible approaches to answering the following research...
Scholarly Publications
Entering the Virtual Teachers' Lounge: Social Connectedness Among Professional Educators in Virtual Environments, Faculty Publications and Presentations (2010)
As communication and connection are essential instruments for professional educators, this chapter seeks to examine...
PRESENTATIONS AND WORKSHOPS
Improving Interaction with Doctoral Candidates’ During the Dissertation Process. (with Amanda J. Rockinson-Szapkiw and David Holder), Counsel for Higher Education Pedagogy (2011)
PUBLISHED PROCEEDINGS
Students' Perceptions of Using Web 2.0 Technologies to Enhance the Social and Cognitive Aspects of Learning: Audio and Video Enhanced Wiki Texts and Second Life Discussions in Teacher and Counselor Education (with Amanda J. Rockinson-Szapkiw and David Holder), Amanda J. Rockinson-Szapkiw (2011)
As a generation of technologically savvy learners enters institutions of higher education, expectations are increasing...
Using Open Source Technologies to Increase Teacher Immediacy and Presence (with Amanda J. Rockinson-Szapkiw and David Holder), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (2011)
Attrition rates in distance education teacher education programs is a concern for university administrators and...
Audio-visual Student Created Wiki Textbooks (with Amanda J. Rockinson-Szapkiw and David Holder), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2010 (2010)
This tech-savvy generation of students, known as digital natives, desires to learn and to interact...
Overcoming Challenges in Learning Communities and Second Life (with David Holder and Amanda J. Rockinson-Szapkiw), ISTE (2010)
The educational scholarly community has identified Second Life (and virtual worlds in general) as harboring...
Student Teaching and Second Life: Using Second Life to Connect Distributed Interns. (with Amanda J. Rockinson-Szapkiw and David Holder), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2010 (2010)
Virtual world technologies such as Second Life and There has generated much interest concerning its...
No subject area
Motivating Students to Learn: Is There a Difference between Traditional Books and e-Books? (with Amanda J. Rockinson-Szapkiw and David Holder), Faculty Publications and Presentations (2011)
Electronic books have been identified as a current trend in education and are being increasingly...
Of Student Teachers and Avatars: Working Towards an Effective Model for Geographically Distributed Learning Communities of Pre-Service Educators Using Virtual Worlds. (with Amanda J. Rockinson-Szapkiw, David Holder, and Deborah Hodgson), Faculty Publications and Presentations (2010)
With greater distribution of learning communities through the expanding use of online and distance learning,...
SharePoint Collaboration: Streamlining the Dissertation Process for Online Students (with Amanda J. Rockinson-Szapkiw and David Holder), Faculty Publications and Presentations (2010)
In the era of Web 2.0, document editors and collaborative workspaces have emerged. Primary functions...
Technologies that Assist in Closing the Achievement Gap: A Comparison African American and Caucasian Students’ Learning and Community in the Online Classroom (with Amanda J. Rockinson-Szapkiw and Holder David), Faculty Publications and Presentations (2010)
Higher Education administrators and educators seek to understand how to design and to facilitate online...