{"id":1699,"date":"2026-04-21T11:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/otessa.org\/2026\/?p=1699"},"modified":"2026-06-01T21:44:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T04:44:44","slug":"dave-mcalinden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/otessa.org\/2026\/dave-mcalinden\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave McAlinden"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-1699\" data-postid=\"1699\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-1699 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    \t\t\t\t<div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_row themify_builder_row tb_da36919 tb_first tf_w\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"row_inner col_align_top tb_col_count_1 tf_box tf_rel\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column tb-column col-full tb_3waj920 first\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_subrow themify_builder_sub_row tf_w col_align_top tb_col_count_2 tb_vpgz665\">\n\t\t\t\t<div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column sub_column col4-2 tb_g1l0665 first\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_qimj953   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n\t<h3 class=\"module-title\">Beautiful Ideas, Missing Machinery: Why Bad Ideas Spread in Education, and How to Use Models Without Being Used by Them<\/h3>    <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n\t\t<p>Why do some educational ideas become popular even when they do not reliably help people learn?<\/p>\n<p>This keynote explores how educational models, theories, and frameworks become attractive, protected, and sometimes harmful. Through examples from reading instruction, instructional theory, and large-scale educational reform, the talk considers how educators can distinguish between ideas that are merely appealing and ideas that are genuinely useful. The goal is not to reject models, but to use them more responsibly. That is, to ask what they help us see, what they hide, when they apply, and whether they actually improve learning.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than offering another facile call to \u201cback to basics,\u201d this talk argues for a more pragmatic way forward. Some ideas are wrong at the core. Some begin as useful ideas but mutate into slogans. Others are legitimate theories that become weakened through shallow application. Ultimately, the talk is a warning against cynicism and a case for agency. This is just one tool educators can use to become more discerning, more evidence-informed, and more responsible in how they choose, use, and revise the ideas that guide their work.<\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div  data-lazy=\"1\" class=\"module_column sub_column col4-2 tb_a0eo665 last\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<!-- module text -->\n<div  class=\"module module-text tb_uea8920   \" data-lazy=\"1\">\n\t<h3 class=\"module-title\">Biography<\/h3>    <div  class=\"tb_text_wrap\">\n\t\t<p class=\"ms-outlook-mobile-reference-message skipProofing\">Dave <span class=\"outlook-search-highlight\" data-markjs=\"true\">McAlinden<\/span> is Associate Director of Instructional Design and Media at Columbia University\u2019s School of Professional Studies, where he works across instructional design, learning science, media production, faculty development, and online education strategy. His work focuses on helping faculty and program teams design learning experiences that are clear, accessible, evidence-informed, and connected to real-world performance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ms-outlook-mobile-reference-message skipProofing\">Dave\u2019s career in education has spanned higher education, online learning, and ESL education. He previously worked with Columbia University\u2019s Center for Veteran Transition and Integration on the development of massive open online courses. He also brings several years of experience in ESL education, with a focus on teaching, technology implementation, and instructional design in international contexts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ms-outlook-mobile-reference-message skipProofing\">Dave holds a Bachelor\u2019s degree in Arts and Letters and a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Speech and Hearing Sciences from Portland State University, as well as a Master\u2019s degree in Instructional Design and Delivery from Manhattan College. He is currently completing his Doctorate in Applied Learning Sciences at the University of Miami.<\/p>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- \/module text -->\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Beautiful Ideas, Missing Machinery: Why Bad Ideas Spread in Education, and How to Use Models Without Being Used by Them Why do some educational ideas become popular even when they do not reliably help people learn? This keynote explores how educational models, theories, and frameworks become attractive, protected, and sometimes harmful. Through examples from reading [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1700,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/otessa.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/otessa.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/otessa.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otessa.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otessa.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1699"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/otessa.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1756,"href":"https:\/\/otessa.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699\/revisions\/1756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otessa.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/otessa.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otessa.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otessa.org\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}