Hi everyone! Excited to see some familiar faces in this course. I’m located and grew up in Vancouver BC and this is my 5th/6th MET course (also taking ETEC 544), time really goes by fast when you’re busy!
I’ve been teaching for around 7 years as a Business Lecturer/Educator that mainly focuses on teaching Management, Organizational Behaviour and Entrepreneurship to undergraduate Years 1-4 BBA students and adult learners (for corporate training). Other areas which I’m involved in includes Legal Arbitration/ADR consultation and occasionally hosting local radio programmes/podcasts. In my spare time, I enjoy playing/listening to music, cooking, video games and watching movies
I’m fascinated by all sorts of emerging technology startups/ventures and strongly believe that the future for Ed.Tech is immense. It’s definitely an area which could use more creative ideas and expansion in terms of innovation and implementation. I’m predicting demand will probably continue to increase within our Web 2.0 and online learning environment.
That being said, exploration and discovery are the main keywords which I hope to bring into this course and objective wise, I hope to understand more about the current landscape of ventures/startups within the Ed.Tech market while contributing ideas on how we can all collaboratively generate new possibilities to this field
Also connected to technology is Gamification as for those who have worked with me before in previous courses, you’ll probably remember that I enjoy all sorts of games (video, card, board, social etc). From past experience it seems students of all ages are quite receptive towards this learning approach as I’m constantly trying to find new ways to make teaching more engaging, interactive and fun through the use of Gamification techniques.
Looking forward to learning from you all!
Hi John! You have a super cool background. It sounds like you have a wealth of knowledge for ventures! On a side note, what’s your favorite boardgame?
Hi Wynn
I’m still learning everyday so looking forward to working with everyone in the class haha. I like the classics such as Monopoly, Clue, Ticket to Ride, Pictionary and Settlers of Catan as they’re easy to play and very adaptable for the classroom regardless of context (eg: I use Ticket to Ride to teach Supply Management/Strategic Management or Pictionary for Communication)
Other boardgames which I enjoy are Arkham Horror (great lore and artwork but sessions are kind of lengthy) and Codenames.
Always open to any new recommendations!
John, so interesting to see someone with a background in corporate training. I’m typically on the other end of that learning endeavor and I can certainly attest that it needs some HELP! But, it is getting much better. There wasn’t much gamification in school when I was a student, but that didn’t stop me from learning all sorts of things from games, you’re right that they simply seem to hold your attention.
Hi Ally
Nice to meet you! I’m sure by the end of this course you’ll be an expert in this field haha, i’m happy to connect and share any anecdotes/experiences related to my work. Definitely agree that we need to innovate and come up with ideas which makes learning more interesting/engaging (a possible venture?).
Looking forward to working with and learning from you (especially your experiences in interior design) in the class!