Visible vs. Invisible Work

For those readers who do not already know, I’ve shifted jobs this academic year. Mesa’s instructional technologist decided she missed the classroom and transferred to a full-time teaching position in the Math department at Scottsdale CC. (Donna...I wish you the happiest!) So, I’m “playing Donna” as I’ve been telling people. I am acting as Mesa’s instructional technologist during the next academic year while we do a full-search for a replacement. Since I’ve started working in this position last July, I’ve realized two things:
1.I have more patience with my students then my colleagues, and
2.I’ve been spoiled by being a faculty member with minimal required time in a specific space.
Traditional two-year college faculty members are responsible for meeting with their classes for 15 hours a week. They are then responsible for five more office hours. Count in an occasional committee meeting (maybe 2 hours a week) and you’ve got 22 hours of required work at a specific time in a specific place. As a faculty member who taught a lot of online courses, and also had a few online office hours, my space/time requirement was even less. 
Now I’m responsible for 30 hours a week, plus one course a semester. Eek...what is this real work thing? Reading Segal’s article “Invisible Hours” in the Chronicle of Higher education got me thinking about this role differently. I was always impressed by how many faculty Donna knew on campus. Obviously that came with the fact that the instructional technologist is a “service” position; however, it also requires a lot more “visible time.” But, as Segal discussed, I’m finding it very difficult to get “serious” or “hard” work done during all these visible hours. I’m now beginning to understand how Duane, my dissertation chairperson, gets all his work done...it’s shoved in any available minute. I’m also realizing that it is slowly getting easier to break bigger projects into smaller chunks. Ultimately, I hope, this experience of increased “visible” time and learning how to be productive within it will make me a more productive faculty member.
And if Segal is right, during this time of increased accountability (esp. for those of us at Mesa CC), learning to be productive, while we are still visible, is a skill all scholars in the 21st century will have to master. 

September 11 2007 | Posted in 21st Century Scholarship