Jonathan Gunnell
I direct the Center for Educational Innovation at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, where my team and I help faculty design and teach online courses and build the programs and web applications that support them.
I’ve also taught 59 courses since 2008, first music technology and guitar at Duquesne and now graduate education courses at Point Park University.
Since 2002 I've also played guitar in bands around Pittsburgh. Right now that's My so-called 90s Band, about 40 shows a year. Every show I could track down is listed here.
Upcoming performances
693 performances since 2002
Nov7Full BandH Lounge @ Hollywood Casino at The Meadows
Nov21AcousticHazards Mini Golf and Social Pub
Jan9AcousticHazards Mini Golf and Social Pub
May8AcousticPrivateWedding
May15Full BandBloom Brew
Jun19Full BandBloom Brew
Jul4Full BandMt. Lebanon July 4 Celebration
Jul17Full BandBloom Brew
About me
I came to instructional design and technology through music. I studied music technology and sound recording at Duquesne, taught music technology there for eleven years, and wrote a dissertation on whether background music in instructional video helps or hurts (unfortunately, it mostly hurts). Along the way I managed online programs at the University of Pittsburgh, and since 2019 I’ve directed learning design at Behrend and taken on university-wide roles like co-chairing Penn State’s Online Coordinating Council.
The band is a business as much as a hobby. Gunner Status LLC has run My so-called 90s Band since 2016, and the booking, setlists, social media, and this website all run on the same stack I use at work: Next.js, Supabase, Airtable, and a good deal of Claude Code.
Before the 90s band there were The Red Western, Satin Gum, Winslow, Derek White and the Monophobics, and a few others. Most of those years I was also behind the console, engineering and mixing records for friends' bands (recording credits).
Experience
- Director, Center for Educational Innovation, Penn State Behrend (2019 to now)
- Adjunct Instructor, Point Park University School of Education (2022 to now)
- Manager, Online Programs, University of Pittsburgh (2014 to 2019)
- Adjunct Professor of Music Technology, Duquesne University (2008 to 2019)
- Owner, Gunner Status LLC and My so-called 90s Band (2010 to now)
Recent teaching
59 courses since 20082026
Point Park University, School of Education
- EDUC 581 Innovative Instruction and LeadershipFall II, Summer I
- EDUC 543 Learning Technologies for EducatorsFall I, Spring II; independent study, Fall II
- EDUC 534 Online Teaching: Design and DeliverySummer II
- EDUC 580 Instructional Technology Administration and ManagementSpring II
2025
Point Park University, School of Education
- EDUC 581 Innovative Instruction and LeadershipFall II, Summer I
- EDUC 580 Instructional Technology Administration and ManagementFall I, Spring II
- EDUC 534 Online Teaching: Design and DeliverySummer II
- EDUC 543 Learning Technologies for EducatorsSpring II
Things I've built recently
- mysocalled90sband.com: the band's public site, and the admin tools that run it. Next.js, Supabase, Vercel.
- tvandsnacks.com: the band's internal tools, including the audience request form and a setlist generator that weights songs by how recently they were played.
- Pathways to Pedagogy: a Penn State tool that links teaching activities to the educational technologies that support them.
- The H5P Portal: CEI's interactive content platform, rebuilt from Drupal to WordPress in 2025 with a set of custom plugins. It serves about 40 instructional designers across four Penn State campuses.
- The Behrend Strategic Plan Dashboard: a Next.js application on Google Cloud that college leadership uses to track the 2026 to 2030 strategic plan.
- This site. Same stack.