Teaching university instructors requires the same skill set as teaching in general.
The same interpersonal management skills are required – from anger management to providing creative solutions. It’s mostly about providing clear instructions, answering questions, anticipating potential sticky points and possessing superhuman patience and fortitude.
For instructional technologist Dajha Houston (pronounced like déjà in déjà vu), eight years in Wake County schools teaching first, second and seventh graders left her well-prepared for the challenge of educating NC State instructors about various learning technologies.
“My time as a teacher has helped me enormously with my work at DELTA, especially when I’m helping faculty problem-solve academic challenges,” she said. “Everyone on my team advocates for the faculty we work with, because we are on the front lines talking and working with them every day.”
And, Houston believes, building positive relationships with her students — whether they are six or 76 — is essential to everyone’s success, in the classroom and beyond.
“If you can build a relationship with your students and show them that you want to get to know them as people, they will be more open to learning from you,” Houston said. “So that’s what I do.”
What is your role with DELTA?
Houston is coming up on her first year with the Instructional Technology Training (ITT) team in Digital Learning. She focuses considerable time on educating NC State instructors about the many enterprise learning technologies available to them — what they are, how to use them and how they can improve student learning outcomes or instructional challenges.
“My team has to know a little about everything,” she explained. “If there’s anything we don’t know we make it a point to find out.”
Like many DELTA staff, the ITT team members are a versatile bunch. “Sometimes we’re doing instructional design or accessibility work, sometimes we’re creating content for YouTube, and sometimes we are a shoulder to cry on for instructors,” Houston said. “Being on the “front lines” of instructor support sometimes means commiserating with some frustrated venting.”
Houston takes it in stride. She knows the learning curve for getting up to speed with ever-evolving educational tech is steep — particularly for new instructors and trainers.
“When I first joined DELTA, I was overwhelmed with the number of instructional tools we have available,” she said. “As a teacher, I was drooling and my fingers were tingling thinking of all the things I could do with them. But as a trainer, I was sweating bullets and rethinking my life choices.”
She credits her team with helping her learn all of the tech quickly, though she still sometimes finds it difficult to navigate the many resources available. “I spend a lot of time researching because I want to be able to answer questions easily and effectively,” she said. “I research articles, websites and videos, and I watch our workshop recordings to learn as much as I can about the tools.”
When she’s not training instructors, creating content for workshops or researching, Houston is writing. “I write teaching resources articles, teaching tech tips, even short descriptions or notes for consultations,” she explained. “This is my favorite type of work — it’s the English teacher in me.”
What do you enjoy about your work?
Houston is enthusiastic about many facets of her work — not least of which is the sheer number of people she impacts.
“I tell people all the time that I would have never imagined being on a campus this large,” she said. “The fact that meeting with one instructor about one course can impact an exponential number of students is insane to me. I would have never thought that my reach could be so far.”
That teacher’s instinct to help others kicks in pretty much every day for Houston, bringing her joy and a profound sense of purpose while using skills she honed during her years in the classroom.
“There is nothing I love more than creating authentic, rigorous and effective learning experiences for instructors and students,” she said. “Not only can I help instructors with their courses, but I also get to continue teaching — the students are just a little older.”
A favorite educational technology of Houston’s is digital whiteboarding, something she used frequently in her classrooms. At the 2024 Mountain Moot this past summer, she gave a presentation on whiteboards that included a eulogy for Jamboard, an early Google offering that is sunsetting December 31. NC State supports Zoom Whiteboarding as an enterprise-supported alternative, as well as non-enterprise Miro.
“I love the look on people’s faces after a workshop or training when they see what’s possible with whiteboards,” she said.
She even gave a presentation about digital whiteboards in her DELTA interview. Evidently, it was a successful presentation.
Houston is most proud of her instructional tools guide, an interactive module activity for NC State instructors looking to address specific instructional challenges using enterprise learning technology. The guide allows instructors to choose course goals such as “content creation” or “interaction and engagement” and then filter the various instructional tools based on their capabilities.
“Right now it’s a tool we use for workshops to help instructors discover our various resources in a new and interactive way,” she explained. “I have high hopes about what this tool could become in the future.”
Not merely a cog in the university machine, Houston understands the value of her work and that of her larger team in advancing NC State’s mission of excellence in teaching and learning. In fact, she is enormously proud of her role.
“I can see how my team adds value to the whole organization, and how just doing our part impacts everyone here at NC State,” she said. “In an institution this diverse it is a blessing to know that I’m making a difference from right where I am.”
What is your background?
Houston moved to Raleigh from Glen Burnie, Maryland, in fifth grade, and she’s been here ever since. Although she has a birth mother and a former stepmother with whom she keeps in touch, Houston was primarily raised by her single dad, Taj, an orthopedic tech for Wake Med.
“It’s just been me and my dad,” she said. “He’s the one who has never left my side. He learned how to parent a teenage girl and even learned how to do my hair.”
Her dad’s efforts to learn how to style hair were a big deal to Houston, who sees her hair as an extension and expression of her identity. Growing up, she often wore her hair in locs — a permanent style that celebrates the freedom of natural texture and wild growth and which, Houston said, “were pretty awesome.” As she got older, she found she wanted to explore different styles, textures, lengths and colors.
“As a natural hair girl, sometimes I love to embrace my curls and volume, and other times I don’t,” she explained. “Protective styles are my favorite, especially because you can play with color and length. I love that I can switch it up as much as I want, and I do, because it’s an extension of me.”
After high school, Houston enrolled at Elizabeth City State University, majoring in elementary education with a concentration in History. Having worked in education settings for several years already (except for a brief stint at TJ Maxx as a teen, which cured her any desire to stay in retail), she knew she wanted a career in education.
“I graduated on a Saturday in December of 2017 and the following Monday I was a certified teacher standing in front of a class of first graders,” she said. The next six years would be spent shaping young lives as a first and second grade teacher in Wake County schools.
“Teaching was so fulfilling for me,” Houston explained. “My students always knew they had to work hard, but the relationships I built truly made all the hard work — for them and for me — worth it.”
Seeking a change of pace, Houston earned her K-9 English language certification, and transitioned to teaching seventh grade English Language Arts (ELA). Implementing an open door policy during non-class time, she quickly developed a devoted following of students who preferred to eat lunch in the classroom with her rather than in the school cafeteria.
“I wanted to open my classroom to students who were too overwhelmed by the cafeteria or just wanted to come into my space,” she said. “The only rule was that they had to be kind to one another and speak life into themselves instead of tearing themselves or others down. As a result I spent many lunches laughing, crying and dancing with my students.”
As she dove into creating lesson plans for her middle schoolers, Houston discovered in herself a talent for robust curriculum design that resulted in effective learning experiences. Her school administrators, impressed with her comprehensive learning plans, allowed her to create the classroom she believed would best serve her students.
A colleague even suggested she consider a career in instructional design.
Houston did. As a first-generation college graduate, “I didn’t have much experience or know-how into the many career opportunities out there,” she said. The more she learned about instructional design, the more convinced she became that it was the right path for her. She started looking at graduate programs in the field.
“While looking online one day, an advertisement for a job at NC State fell into my lap — instructional technologist for DELTA,” she explained. “I didn’t expect to be hired but I wanted to give it a try. I loved the idea of staying within the field of education and reaching a bigger audience. And now here I am!”
As for grad school, Houston received her letter of acceptance into the NC State Master of Education in Learning Design and Technology just last month. She’s thrilled.
“Pursuing a graduate degree at NC State is something I never thought would be possible for me, a first-generation student who had no understanding of what it took to get into a school like this,” she said. “I’m officially an NC State student!!”
What is something people might not know about you?
Houston considers herself to be a pretty big gamer. She’s been gaming since she was a little kid and is something of an aficionado of The Sims, the popular interactive life-simulation PC games first released in 2000. She was introduced to The Sims by her dad, who is also an avid player.
“I have played every version of the games and can tell you the pros and cons of each of them,” she said. “I even have a laptop purchased specifically and only to play The Sims.”
As a kid with an active imagination who loved creating worlds with her Barbies, the game made sense to Houston, and she would spend hours creating. These days, she most enjoys building houses, creating intricate details for both the interior and the exterior.
“My favorite version was definitely Sims 2,” Houston said. “They continue to fail us the further they get from Sims 2 features, but I’m committed, so I still have every game pack, expansion pack and stuff pack for Sims 3 and 4.”
Houston enjoys other video games as well. Growing up as the only girl in a posse of boy cousins, she joined them in playing Tekken, Midnight Club, Mario Kart, Super Mario Bros. and Grand Theft Auto.
In fact, she still plays Mario Kart, just on a PlayStation instead of a Nintendo — and she can probably beat you.
What do you do in your spare time?
As mom to energetic three-year-old Orion, much of Houston’s spare time is spent chasing after her son. “I love, love, love spending time with my little guy,” she said. “He’s the light of my life and I adore doing activities with him.” Orion recently discovered the Super Mario Bros. movie, and whenever he watches it Houston feels a touch of nostalgia for her own Mario-steeped childhood.
An avid reader, Houston reads or listens to audiobooks as often as possible. “If you come by my cube, I’m almost always listening to an audiobook,” she explained. “I listen to them in the car, when I’m getting ready in the morning, when I’m shopping, even when I’m sleeping!” (Reading by osmosis — it’s a thing.)
A self-described serial romance reader, Houston has recently gotten into romantasy (romantic fantasy) by way of the wildly popular Fourth Wing series by Rebecca Yarros — and she’s hooked.
“I love being transported into different worlds, and many fantasy writers truly know how to show all parts of their characters,” she explained. A recent favorite is “When the Moon Hatched” by Sarah A. Parker, a somewhat spicy novel featuring world-building, dragons, magic and assassinations galore.
In other words, it’s right in Houston’s wheelhouse.
She would love to talk to DELTA colleagues about favorite books. “I want to know what you are reading and I want to read it too!” Houston welcomes recommendations in other genres, including children’s books. Orion is currently on a “Goodnight Moon” kick, along with anything featuring tractors or trucks.
“You should hear him try to say excavator,” she laughed. “It’s the cutest thing.”
As fall semester wraps up, Houston is looking forward to the holiday season — extra time for reading, gaming and spending time with Orion — and gearing up for a new semester.
“I could talk about teaching and learning all day long,” she said. “And as an instructional technologist and soon-to-be graduate student, now I can.”
- Categories:
