About Me

I am a Research Analyst within a faculty at the University of British Columbia. I work with educators, educational technologists, and instructional designers to extract, analyze, and use data that can improve teaching and learning.

My overarching goal for the MET program has been to learn more about the Education of Educational Technology. My background is a technical one, and while I work within a higher education institution, I think it is valuable to have a better understanding of the education perspective from the educator’s lens. I wrote in my application to the MET program, and I still believe that that technology should be an enabling force, but the application should stem from principles about the context of its adoption, where in education the core context is the learner.

As a member of a team our main priority is to support educators. I believe in order to do this effectively it is important to “speak the language” to both understand the educator’s point of view, goals, intentions etc. but also to be able to effectively communicate and promote data-driven decision making and effective technology implementation.

My ETEC 524 Goals (Flight Path)

How can ETEC524 help me become a supporter of a digital-age teaching professional?

I have no formal education experience, and no current desire to become an educator per se. I am, however, a supporter of educators. As such, I think the value in this course for me is to understand more deeply the challenges and also the perspective of educators who adopt technology.  I will have to find resources that might help me understand the pedagogical perspective where I may already have technology understanding. The ISTE educator standard 1c is to stay current with research including findings from learning sciences. In areas of the course where I feel I have the right understanding of technology, I hope to pursue relevant research that connects the technology to pedagogy that might help me understand perspectives outside of my own.

How can I be a more engaged member of a community?

A more personal goal for this course is to more actively engage as a member of the course community. The ISTE standards recognize the importance of educators also being a “learner”. This includes active participation in global and local networks (ISTE, 2017). In other courses I have struggled with engagement in discussion forums because the value was not always apparent to me. Now that I am in the end stages of the M.E.T program, I think I would be remiss to not be as engaged as possible.

I hope to leverage the expertise and experience of my educator peers in this course to help be more engaged and to understand where my first goal (to be a supporter) fits in today’s context. I also wonder how I could possibly use some of the f Canvas itself to encourage my own

How can I go beyond the educator and the learner?

While the learner is at the centre of education, and is deeply connected to the educator, it is important to also consider the other parties and challenges that exist in the larger educational system. Chickering & Ehrmann (1996) write that “technology is not enough” and identify institutional policy, and legislators as important components for technologies to be used effectively and efficiently. The implementation of their Seven Principles must go beyond the educator and student: “it is appropriate for legislators and other benefactors to ask whether institutions are striving to improve educational practice consistent with the Seven Principles” (Chickering & Erhmann, 1996, para. 35-36).

What do I need to know about “digital” vs. “mobile” technologies?

Looking ahead in the course, there is a module regarding mobile technologies which states that mobile technologies are not delivery platforms. I hope to investigate where the difference is today. My laptop is mobile, my cell phone has the Canvas app – what are the key distinctions that are important when discussing the differences or similarities in these technologies? Do educators see a distinction where students may no longer? Is there a more important semantic difference that I am unaware of or have I created a distinction that I need to break down?

What connections can I make to my previous ETEC courses?

I am pleased to be taking this course later in my M.E.T journey, because the previous courses have provided a better groundwork for the technology we will learn about to be built on top of. I see one of my goals of this course as making the connection between the technology and what has been learned so far. I will challenge myself to reference what I have learned in previous courses as well as specific articles or readings from those courses as relevant to the current module in ETEC 524.

References

Chickering, A. W., & Ehrmann, S., C. (1996). Implementing the seven principles: Technology as lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), 3-6. Retrieved May 16, 2021, from http://www.aahea.org/articles/sevenprinciples.htm

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2017). Standards for teachers. Retrieved May 16, 2021, from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators