Hi! My name is Raquel and I’m also taking my final courses for the MET program. This is my first time taking 2 courses simultaneously, so please send good vibes as I attempt to tackle ETEC522 and 524.
My background is very eclectic, which informs my professional and educational mindmap for better or for worse. I have lived, studied and worked in different countries and been exposed to various educational systems in Colombia, Japan (ESL private, for-profit), and post-sec in North America. In my career, I have gravitated towards professional roles that overlap aspects of both education and technology, and never quite been able to settle on one or the other. Most recently, I work in Marketing in continuing ed.
Early in my career I was an English teacher in Japan, where I was exposed to a lot of innovative edu-technologies that were years ahead of their time. When I came to Canada from Asia, inspired by those Japanese technologies, I actually went through the process of building (and then disassembling) an edu-tech startup from 2008 to 2011. I’m sad to report that my years in the Toronto start-up ecosystem remain one of the most difficult, unfriendly, female-hostile and disappointing experiences of my life. I will do my best to keep an open mind in this course, but I wonder how much of the theory will contrast with my lived experience. The Canadian startup scene was also byzantinely conservative when compared to my experiences in the USA/TX tech scene. So, I’ve been on those front lines, and they were not pretty.
As I approach my final courses in the MET program, I would like to use the knowledge I gain to understand if I could pivot to roles more oriented towards Instructional Design. However, I struggle with the field as well, as a lot of the current online education I see and experience, looks/feels like edutainment to me. Companies and organizations churn out pretty and fun content, but do students actually learn and retain anything they learn fully online? (I certainly have struggled with this aspect in my grad studies and the pandemic/zoom fatigue is not helping). I’m really trying here, but my GenX mind keeps screaming that most online learning today is… not a thing I can recognize as actual learning. Is it too late for me to believe in eLearning again? Please check my final post to find out.
Raquel, I am sending you major good vibes during your last semester of MET! (you got this :)). Your background is very interesting – what a wealth of experience and knowledge you are bringing to ETEC 522. I feel like I have so many questions but don’t know where to start. Consider me “subscribed” to your posts over this term, and hope you enjoy your last course!
Hi Racquel,
I am also taking 524! Sending plenty of good vibes your way here and in 524.
Your experience and background are such a treasure trove which I am hoping to learn from.
I have always wanted to live in Japan and experience their technologies.
I am sorry you had such a terrible experience with the Toronto startup ecosystem, but times are changing and hopefully so many great things will happen to us.
Congrats on reaching the finish line and I look forward to reading your final post.
Thank you all for the good vibes!