My name is Barbara Mair, this is my first ETEC course. I am very excited about the course although i am a little nervous because it has been  a long time since i was a student. Unlike many of  you i am  living in the business world, mainly management, sales and marketing. I want to learn more about the academic world. I am launching hybrid (online/onsite) training for teachers in Mexico, hopefully helping them integrate technology into the classroom.  I am looking forward to working with you and learning from you

Hi everyone,

My name is Amy Frank. I live in Calgary, Alberta with my husband, two sons, and dog. We are actually expecting baby #3 at the end of this course! I started this program after having my first son, so it seems fitting that I will finish the program during my third sons first year. The beauty of this program is that I can actually have small children, be pregnant, work full-time, and still “attend” class. Love it. This is my ninth course. Due to the expected arrival of my third baby, I will be taking January to March off, so convocation will have to wait until Fall 2010.

My family (I am the only girl)

I am very excited about this course, as it seems to fit with my interests more than most of the other courses I have completed. Unlike many of you, I am not a formal teacher. My interests in learning technologies began when I was working for a market research company. I was looking for a change and, since I had HTML knowledge, they asked me to start designing training for our clients. In the beginning I only knew how to create basic web design and technical writing. I started taking continuing education courses through the University of Calgary and Mount Royal in online documentation and e-learning. I was hooked at that point. I was working with some well-known Fortune 500 companies, and my company was allowing me the flexibility and resources to make some changes to how we delivered our online training. Unfortunately, venture capatalist companies, like the one I was working for, tend to put money into the areas that are “hot” and demanded by clients. As soon as the economy changed and a couple clients decided to discontinue working with us, my team also stop receiving funding to make changes. This meant my fun ended. However, this is also when I found out about this program and found a new job. I am currently working for AlbertaHealth Services (previously the Calgary Health Region). I work as e-Learning Developer in the Patient Care Information Services department. We develop e-learning modules used to train clinical staff on the various patient care applications.  As the various regions merge, there is a push to align patient care applications and start developing provincial training platforms.  I am hoping this drive towards e-records will open more opportunities for our group. In the future, I hope to continue working in business.

When I am not working, I am spending time with my kids. I would like to say that I have a number of hobbies and activities going on,but with two kids, 3 and 1, with another on the way, I am just happy to sit on the couch for the last hour of the day. J I will get some hobbies in two – three years.

I look forward to this semester and having a chance to work with all of you!

 Amy

Hello,

My name is Cathy Jung. I live in Markham, Ontario. I work for Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) as the Manager of Business and Technical Training. I am responsible for employee learning and development on a wide range of topics (product knowledge, corporate policies and procedures, sales and service, computer systems…). I also have an ESL teaching background and have taught newcomers to Canada and international students. 

I have an Honours Bachelor of Arts and a Certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of Toronto and have completed a Diploma in Adult Education from University of BC. 

ETEC 522 is my sixth course in the program. My professional interests surround workplace learning and technologies to support employee learning and development. Some of my personal interests include traveling, reading and scrapbooking.

I look forward to working with all of you in ETEC 522.

 Cathy

Hello. I have just started the MET TBDL program. In addition to taking this course I am also currently taking ETEC 512. For the past eight years I have been teaching philosophy at a university level, at first with the University of North Dakota and the University of Minnesota, and more recently with Athabasca University. I completed my PhD in philosophy from the University of Calgary last year. I am looking forward to taking this course as it will be very different from my previous studies.

Greetings all,

I am looking forward to the 7th and 8th courses this fall, and can’t wait to learn more about this topic.

I live on a lovely Niagara horse farm, and have many irons in the fire in addition to the MET program.

I started into educational  digital media in 1993, and have since been lucky enough to be involved in many facets of project management, design, and development on disc, in print, and online. I have been a consultant since ’96, and am currently the online editorial manager for a public-facing website for the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association. I also coach communication skills for veterinary students in f2f labs, and do clinical practice to pay the bills (MET tuition and such). I am currently an online instructor for University of Guelph, for Equine Nutrition, and have recently been involved in extensive course updates. I write for popular magazines, and have recently finished work on a couple of textbooks. I have also been a medical dictionary and popular press book editor.

For one project, I was involved as a manager for a group in the US. They developed a large website with many thousands of interfaces and the first online publishing template system. They did the project with millions in VC support (and they did the dotcom crash)

MUGSHOT

I learned a lot from that experience about venturing into the world of very large web development projects.

Our family enjoys time at the cottage and skiing, and in my spare time, I enjoy photography and acrylic painting (what spare time may you ask?). My children are 21 and 16, and the light of my life.

Looking forward to getting to know all of you online this semester,

may the wind always be at your back,

Kathleen

Summer 2009 at Canada Place in Vancouver

Greetings Everyone!

My name is Marjorie del Mundo and this past summer, I have been working as an Educational Programmer with UBC Student Development to help create the Discover Your Major tutorial for undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts. The project is nearing completion and after this, I hope to take a trip to Hong Kong for my friend’s wedding at the end of the month (and meet a couple MET’ers F2F for the first time), enjoy a bit of a break from the world of work, and focus more on school.

ETEC 522 and 540 mark my eighth and ninth MET courses – countdown to May convo!  Unlike many of you, I do not have formal teaching experience and until a few months ago, I have worked in marketing and more specifically, graphic design. Feel free to view my designPortfolio + eduPortfolio. In this course, I hope to explore business ideas in relation to interaction design and educational technology.

It’s great to see some familiar and new names here and I look forward to collaborating and sharing ideas with you all!

Marjorie

My name is Lorne Upton.  During the winter months, I teach at Walnut Grove Secondary in Langley and, during the summer, I work for the BC Forest Service Wild Fire Management at the Coastal Fire Centre in Parksville and at the Haig Firebase in Hope.   Although both professions are very different, I enjoy them equally.  I also foresee drawing on both experiences as I work my way through ETEC 522.   I wish everyone the best of luck and look forward to learning from you.

Hi Everyone!

I’m Ana Cecilia Tagliapietra (Ceci) and as far as I can see, I’m the only student from Mexico 😀

I live in Mexicali, BC, Mexico- a small border town with California, USA … it’s 10:43 p.m. here and it’s over 90F outside!

I must say it’s very impressive to read your experiences in Education, I hope I learn from everyone.

I’m beginning my 6^th and 7^th courses in the double degree program with UBC and ITESM, but this is the first course I take directly with UBC. I studied Education in a Jesuit University here in Mexico and I’ve been working in Education for about eight years now. I’m currently working in CETYS University, coordinating the Institutional Assessment efforts along with Curriculum Design/Evaluation, as well as teaching basic media and technology use to EFL teachers and Curriculum Design to Education students.

 I’ll be reading you around 😉

Hi Everybody,

My name is Ed Stuerle. I am an elementary teacher in Kelowna, BC. I have been teaching here since 1983. I am currently teaching Grade 5 part time and I am doing some prep relief in the computer lab for the rest of the time. I really enjoy my time in the computer lab (that is until the computers start misbehaving). I find that it is very easy to motivate the students and that many students who might struggle in the traditional classroom often are quite comfortable using technology to present their understandings.

This summer my wife and I celebrated our 25th anniversary by going on an incredible ‘Tour of Antiquities’. It has been a bit rough getting back into the swing of things!Ed