Ray and Bev and Machu Picchu

HI:  Please forgive my lateness.  I have just returned from Peru where I was hoping to be able to get more work done.  Unfortunately I had many technical difficulties- but now I am home and can dig in. I am currently on leave from my job as a junior/senior high math teach in a small rural school in Southern Alberta in order to  take my 5th, 6th and 7th MET courses this term.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey thus far, and expect it to continue to be an amazing year.

Since graduating from UBC with a B.Ed I have taught English and Science in Nigeria, ESL at Okanagan College, Adult Upgrading at Lethbridge College, established both and adult literacy program and family literacy program in my community, and now have been teaching Math and Language Arts in the public system for 11 years.

I have been married to the same wonderful guy for 31 years ( I was just a baby when I married!)  We have three great kids.  Our last child has just graduated from high school so now we are officially empty nesters, which is bitter sweet.  We love to travel, hike, ski, kayak and camp.

Now that our children are finished school we would like to work overseas.  I am hoping that having my MET will give options.  I am excited about this course and look forward to what ever comes my way!

Ammar Al-Attiyat

Hi Everyone,

My name is Ammar Al-Attiyat, I live and work in Cairo, Egypt (but my home country is Jordan), with ETEC 512 I’m taking my 3rd and 4th courses this semester.

I work for a technology company offering e-Learning products and services to clients from the Higher Education and Corporate markets. I manage a courseware development team (mainly instructional designers, multimedia specialists, content developers …etc). Also part of my job is to carry all Pre-Sales activities and support our sales team in the Middle East region (verrrrrrrrry busy traveling schedule most of the time 🙁 !!

It’s now 21 years since I earned my college degree (BSc, Computer Science), I spent the last 12 years of my career working directly with educational technology products and solutions.

My objective is to complement the practitioner/technologist experience I have with the business/theory behind it, I’ve never practiced teaching or training (though I’ve been coaching my subordinates, good or bad coach that’s another story 🙂 … coming from workplace environment, I have personal interest in Adult and Informal Learning (Web 2.0/eLearning 2.0  related technologies).

I’m father of two boys (11G & 7G) they attend an Off-Shore BC school here in Egypt.

I look forward to interact and learn from all of you.

Cheers,
Ammar

I have completed 4 courses in the MET program and am now taking 3 more.  I am finding the journey a steep up hill climb, but extremely rewarding.  I am not sure what to expect from this course, but am excited to get into it.

I am currently on leave from  my job as a jr-sr high math teacher in a small rural school in Southern Alberta.  I have no role as a tech advisor in my school, but am very interested in technology integration in education.  Having lived and taught in Africa for several years, I am interested in exploring the possibilities of ed. tech in developing areas.

I am looking forward to working with you all.

Enough reading, I’m taking the plunge. This is my first course in MET, and I’m a little surprised ETEC522 is the first one for me. It should be an invigorating start. I like the online aspect because I’m really into anywhere anytime and lifelong learning, and because I have a long commute.

I’ve been working in multimedia and distance education for the last fifteen years and currently work at UBC in the Faculty of Medicine helping with their distributed program.  My career has taken a circuituous route through teaching in Northern Quebec, overseas, then doing a MA in Applied Linguistics, to developing language labs and software at UBC, to seven years online course design and support at Athabasca University while taking the odd course now and then on the way.

This course looks like it will give me a more current and corporate perspective on educational technology.  I hope to see an overview of emerging technologies beyond what I’ve been able to work with in my current position. It’s also a great opportunity to see what is going on elsewhere. I look forward to working with all of you.

About Me

My name is Barrie Carter.  I live in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.  In 1993, I graduated from the University of Victoria with a B. Ed. (secondary curriculum) in English and drama, and, in 2006, I graduated from UBC with a post-graduate diploma in special education (general studies).  Finally, I enjoy hiking, walking, biking, canoeing, camping, listening to jazz, and lifting weights as well as playing chess, tennis, and badminton.

About My Experiences

I work in New Westminster, B.C.  Currently, I teach English 8, social studies 8, ADCAPP 8, French 8, and computers 6/7 at Queensborough Middle School during the day, and English 11 at New Westminster Secondary in the evenings.

I was a full-time resource teacher at Ecole Glenbrook Middle School in New Westminster for five years. I was responsible for a caseload of approximately 15 students, ranging from mild learning disabilities (MLD) to severe learning disabilities (SLD), from Moderate Behaviour to Intensive Behaviour Intervention (for example, ADD, ADHD, ODD, OCD, FASD, FAE), from Noonan’s Syndrome to Sotos Syndrome to Down’s Syndrome, and from Asperger’s Syndrome to severe Autism. As well, I taught  ADCAPP 6 and computers studies 8 throughout the day and sometimes Communications 11 or 12 in the evenings.

Previously, I worked at the Vancouver Learning Centre as a part-time teacher of alternate education. Here, I taught students who (a) sustained brain injuries caused by car crashes, (b) survived strokes returning to upgrade, (c) dropped out of school, (d) had mild to moderate behavioural issues, (e) experienced school expulsions and substance abuse, (f) lived with chronic health issues like diabetes, and (g) lived with ADD, ADHD, ODD, and OCD.  As well, In Masset (on the Haida Gwai’i/Queen Charlotte Islands, B.C.), I taught at George M. Dawson Secondary as a classroom and resource teacher.  Here, I was 4/7 classroom teacher, teaching CAPP 10, Social Studies 10, Essentials of Math 9, and Essentials of Math 10, and 3/7 resource teacher/case manager, teaching students living with Asperger’s, FAE, and FASD.  Finally, in West Vancouver, B.C., I taught at Ridgeview Elementary.  Here, I was a learning assistance teacher, teaching students who had difficulties learning subject matter and meeting course expectations. Then, I taught at Westcot Elementary, as an acting resource teacher. Here, I worked with students living with spina bifida, autism, chronic health, and behavioural issues.

About ETEC 522

I enrolled in ETEC 522 because I have no idea how to launch a learning technologies venture, let alone what it all means.  However, I am looking forward to the journey even though I know that it will be a steep learning curve for me.  As well, I am looking forward to the collective knowledge and to the tools associated with learning technologies.

I look forward to learning from you.

Cheers,

Barrie

Hello Everyone!

My name is Eveline Yu and I am very excited to be back for another semester of MET.  I must say that this blog format is an exciting change from the Vista platform.  I am also happy to say that this course begins my halfway mark in completing this MET program.

Currently, I am teaching English, Communications, and Social Studies at a BC Offshore School in Beijing, China.  This is my 9th year teaching on and off overseas…and although it has been (and still is) an amazing adventure, I still love to call Vancouver my home!

Finally, I would like to say that it’s great to finally put a face to some of the names I have seen for the past years!  I have enjoyed all my previous MET courses and I look forward to working with you in this one!

My name is Anthony Di Palma and I and this is my first semester of working towards my MET degree.  I am currently on leave from a position with the Halton Catholic District School Board near Toronto.  I have been teaching biology and chemistry at Christ the King Secondary for the past 4 years in Georgetown, Ontario.  I did my undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Guelph Ontario and I have my Graduate Diploma of Education from the University of Wollongong in NSW Australia.

I am very excited about collaborating with all of you for the next 3 months.  I find online education to be an exciting and challenging environment to learn in.  Best of luck to us all this semester!

Hello fellow learning venture students and learning facilitators. This is my eighth MET course and the end is in sight but I do not find myself in a hurry to end this experience other then the timeline as I feel this is a lifelong learning development. I continue to be optimistic that I will be able to integrate the experiences I have had in the MET program to meet and motivate the increasingly diverse learning needs of my students. My main challenge continues to be finding time to develop my skills but then again who doesn’t. I live on Vancouver Island in a place called Mill Bay and I teach courses at the secondary school in Duncan. Currently they are Sci and Tech 11, First Nations 12, Planning 10 and remedial math. I look forward to working with you all through this course. Mark Reed

I really had to  try and add some text to my post as I was a bit tire last night and was having some trouble trying to understand why the text was  not appearing. These technical learning curves seems to be the theme of my MET experience as my pictue moves across the screen and I am not sure what I am typing thank goodness for spell check. Anyway I did not want to  portray myself as too much of a minimalist although as our professors have pointed out succinct is great. I added some details to my profile but I am not sure where others would access this. I have enjoyed reading everyone’s introductions and am impressed with the caliber of of the experience members in this learning community have. Well on to next week thanks for your patience.

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