hello from Vancouver
Hello everyone,
My name is Andrea and this is MET course #9 for me. I’ve been looking forward to this course, partly because I’m not a ‘pioneer’ but am interested to spend time learning how ventures come to be. We’re all consumers of different ventures, so it will be intriguing to understand what’s behind the curtain.
I’m an instructional designer at a Vancouver-based non-profit that helps volunteers get involved in health care improvement work, as well as supporting health care providers to do ‘quality improvement’ projects. I’m currently creating e-learning modules for the volunteers, who are from across BC. I’ve been doing this kind of work for a few years, and I love how it blends writing, education, design and technology.
I’m really enjoying this blast of summer that Vancouver is getting, and I just returned from a very sunny vacation in lovely Nova Scotia, shown below.
Looking forward to getting to know you all!
Andrea
Jim 2:55 pm on September 7, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Andrea,
I really like your rationale for taking the course… it kind of reminded me of times when parents ask me why students are spending time creating media texts in school… Besides finding the creative experience to be fun and interesting, the students also learn about what is going on behind the curtain, all the decisions the author(s) makes about the text, meanings, audience, and so on. It helps immeasurably when students start to deconstruct media and critically evaluate it. I think this course will help all of us to do the same when it comes to educational products.
Love the picture of the colourful Adirondack chairs!
andrea 8:09 pm on September 8, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Jim, and thanks! I couldn’t agree more about the value of deconstructing and evaluating to understand how and why things work, or don’t work. I hope that this course will help me to be a more savvy consumer, and perhaps even to inspire my own ventures 🙂
Andrea
Allie 2:53 pm on September 8, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Andrea,
It’s great to meet you! One of the things I’m really enjoying so far about this course is that a lot of us *aren’t* K-12 teachers (K-12 teachers – you all are wonderful too!). The work you’re doing as an instructional designer sounds so much like where I want to position myself, and so I’m really looking forward to hearing more about it!
Allie
andrea 8:06 pm on September 8, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Allie, It does seem like there’s a higher percentage of the non-K-12 crowd in this course. Sounds like you’ve had really diverse experiences educationally and professionally. Are you thinking you’d like to move more towards the design side? Are the courses you teach now face-to-face, blended, or online?
Andrea