Alix and I at the top of Kicking Horse Mountain Resort

Hello

I’m glad to see so many familiar names and now faces.  I guess it is true that we are building a learning community, it just takes a little time.  This is my 7th MET course and one that I have been looking forward to since the beginning of the program.

I am now officially a grade one French immersion teacher.  This is my first year teaching full time and I am realizing that my cut and paste skills are far superior when the processor isn’t me.  I live and work in Vancouver BC and I agree with Ernie that the poor weather has certainly helped focus my energies back to the classroom both living and virtual.

I look forward to working through the materials with all my new and old classmates.

Au revoir

Noah

p.s. We took the gondola…

My name is Jay Dixon I am currently the Vice Principal of Port Hardy Secondary School.

Technology has been a personal and professional interest area to me for many years. I am always looking to learn something new with technology and try to incorporate aspects to support education within my school.

This fall I am also wearing the hat of the DL coordinator, designer, IT guy, and a few other large hats in order to start up a pilot DL school within our district. It is quite a bit of work,but a great learning experience (especially for a newbie on Moodle and barely hour a day to work on it).

I live in Port McNeill on Northern Vancouver Island which is about a 30 minute commute to Port Hardy. An exciting piece of info about me is that this together with 590 are my last courses in the MET program! About 2 weeks after we submit the final assignments in this course my wife is due with our first child too! I’ll move from late nights of posting to MET  online to late nights of researching online about how to stop my son from crying 🙂
Looking forward to working with all of you!

~Jay

Jeff Laird

My name is Jeff Laird.

I currently teach Information & Communications Technology and Digital Media at the high school level in Victoria, BC.  My background is wide and varied in education and I have taught K-12 and was given the illustrious title of “distributed education applications specialist” while working at the college level.

I have always had a strong focus of using technology in my teaching practice and over the past few years have focused on creating a blended learning environment migrating coursework to Moodle and allowing students to blur the barrier between time and space in their classroom.

I have a great interest in the use of games, emulation, and social networking in education with a strong bent towards open source philosophies the delivery and development of educational technology.

Ack!  Which module should I choose?

Hello ETEC522,

At present, I am teaching in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  I teach business, technology and math at a high school (grades 10-12).  I have been teaching for eight years and I believe my niche is the students in grades 10-12.  I have been enjoying the MET program and decided to take this course because I find it interesting to combine business with technology as I believe technology and business goes hand in hand.  I already see some of my former classmates and look forward to working with more of them.

I am a firm believer in traveling and every year I spin that globe, see where my finger lands and head that way for almost 2 months of the summer.  I have found travel another form of Education.

Jen

Hello everyone!

My name is Cari Wilson and I teach two classes of Grade 7 in West Vancouver. I am very fortunate to teach in a one-to-one laptop setting and have done so for the last 4 years. I teach LA, SS French and Visual Art and we use the laptops for all of them! I am taking my last two MET courses this term – this one and 590. I’ve never take two at the same time before, so I’m a little nervous about fitting everything in!

I recently made the very challenging decision not to go into administration. Instead, I’m going to focus on doing Pro-D workshops and maybe some consulting. So, I’m really looking forward to learning some more about business and elearning! I must admit that I’m not totally sure what to expect!

The photo is a picture of my two kids in front of the “dinosaur museum” in Drumheller, Alberta. The kids and I went on a three week road trip this summer and the museum was one of our favourite stops. We also loved Yellowstone Park and Lake Superior. I took all the pictures, so I have no photos of me.

I’m looking forward to meeting all of you!

Cari

Hi all,

My name is Ian Doktor, and I’m a high school science and math teacher, finally (after 3 years in Japan and Hong Kong) back in Vancouver. Its great to be back in Canada, but its been a huge amount of work. This is my 7th MET course and the only one I’m taking this semester (if I tried to take more I get the feeling my head would explode at this point).  I’m a bit pensive about the course to be perfectly honest.  I’m not much of an entrepreneur; the closest thing I have to private sector experience is a few private schools I worked for in Hong Kong and Mexico.  I’ve never really given any thought to Education as a business venture on any level, so this should be an eye opening course for me. 

Cheer,

Ian

Hello everyone.  My name is Michel Lacoursiere and this is my 6^th MET course.  For those interested you can visit my blog/portfolio at lacour.ca or my more info page at lacour.ca/about

I am a high school science teacher specializing in Chemistry and Biology.  Previously I was the lead Chemistry teacher at my own former high school in Peace River, Alberta.  I moved to New Westminster, BC last year with my fiancé who is pursuing orthotics and prosthetics at BCIT.

Here is a picture of us from last year’s Halloween outing, going through my pictures I thought it was fitting considering September is here and October is just around the corner.  People loved those uber-dorky costumes – maybe some ideas for others.

Halloween - 2008 Michel and Lucy

Since moving and starting my MET program I have been working as a researcher/consultant in immersive technologies and educational research.  My most important contract has me researching immersive technologies and learning environments used to train emergency personnel and firefighters.  To get me out of the house and keep sharp as an educator I also work as a teacher-on-call and work as a science facilitator and lead after-school programs at Science World.

Although I will probably return to the classroom someday I have enjoyed my experience as a consultant over the past year and would like to learn more about marketing educational technology.  I guess I could say I’ve always had ideas and skills to market but no idea how to market those skills.  I think this course will provide me with the opportunity to experience another side of education that I have always found interesting and I am sure I will pick up a lot along the way.

Thanks for reading and I am looking forward to learning and working with all of you!

~Michel

This is my fourth MET course and I am really looking forward to it. With any luck I will be half finished the programme by Christmas. This degree has been fascinating and rewarding so far. I have been able to use so much of what I have learned in my work already.

I am a former elementary teacher who is now working for a small company putting professional development for social workers online. I am not trained as an instructional designer so it has been all about the steep learning curve!

Me at a cottage this summer, gathering strength for the coming semester...

My background is in physical anthropology and human anatomy, so I have a very diverse background and set of interests. I have never ventured into business, but I would like to in the future. I hope this course will give me the opportunity to explore this area of eLearning, and possibly prepare me better for a future in which I branch out from what I am doing now.

I am very interested in immersive worlds, like Second Life, for play and recently for education. I am looking into ways in which the “virtual” worlds can be used for teaching, learning and commerce. If you are ever in world I am Elora Habilis – drop me a line!

Looking forward to working with you all!

Introduction

Hello METers! This journey in MET has definitely been quite a ride! There have been many courses and now the end in is in sight! My name is Iris Chan and I am currently the vice principal at Sino Bright International School. It is an offshore program offering a Canadian BC program halfway across the world. The international education market has grown exponentially in China with almost every member of the younger generation being thrown into learning English in some form or another. I came to China 3 years ago and currently have no plans to return to Vancouver unless it is to enjoy the nice summers during my holiday! I am currently teaching Language Arts courses at my school with a focus on Grade 10 ESL students.

I am looking forward to exploring the business perspectives of learning ventures and it will certainly give me a lot of food for thought amidst my own life here. Hopefully, the course is going to give me a wide range of perspectives and develop my own thoughts, feelings and opinions regarding this matter. I am looking forward to using a blog as means of completing a course. This will be a chance from the Vista learning platform and the routine that comes along with it.

Links About Me

Electronic Portfolio From ETEC 565 – https://blogs.ubc.ca/ichanetec565/

Website – http://sites.google.com/site/msirischan/Home

That’s all fellow METers! I am looking forward to learning with all of you!

My wife and I at a movie theatre in Hong Kong to watch Up in 3D.

Hi Everyone. My name is Sean McMinn. This is my 7th MET course, and I’m pretty excited to be (virtually) here.

I teach English at a university here in Hong Kong, and I love it. The job is great, the people are nice, and life is simply interesting and always adventurous. So far, I’ve been enjoying the MET programme — which has helped me advance in my career over the past year or so. In particular, I’ve been able to embed podcasts (http://campusbeat.ust.hk) and wikis into courses successfully thanks to what I’ve learned though the programme.

I’m looking forward to ETEC522 because I lack entrepreneurial skills and would like to explore business opportunities … some day. More immediately, I would like to enhance my intrapreneurial (new word for me) skills. As I learn more through the MET programme I see opportunities for developing or enhancing technologies to be used at our university. To do this, though, I need to apply for funding. If I can improve on my “pitches” or selling, I would be happy.

I’m looking forward to working with everyone. (I can’t believe the summer break went by so fast!)