Hey y’all!

Hi all! I’m Allie in Vancouver. This is my 2nd course in the Certificate in Technology-based Distributed Learning, after completing 510 this past summer. This course was one of the reasons why I applied to the MET program – I really want to explore the intersection of education and business – particularly entrepreneurship. I am looking to move my career into the private sphere, perhaps as an instructional designer. I’m really excited to learn that so many of you are… where I want to be, working in consulting, and for global learning enterprises. I’m *really* looking forward to learning with and from you!

My background is in cultural anthropology, which I studied at UBC and at the University of Texas. Material culture (think: objects, and humans’ relationships to objects) has been my anthropological speciality. 

The international office home at UT; included because I'm captivated by old signage and heritage structures

This isn’t the most typical shot of Texas – postcards typically feature the big tower, the mammoth football stadium, or the spanish style architecture of the oldest buildings. This photo, however, represents my deep love of heritage, particularly in our built landscape. Perhaps unexpectedly for a tech student, I love material things that endure, and I love places like this that make me think of, and feel connected to, the generations of Texas students, staff and faculty who have studied, learned and worked in Austin over the years. 

For the last three years, I have taught undergrad courses on museums and heritage, cultural theory and Aboriginal art history at UBC, SFU, and Emily Carr ~ an art university in Vancouver. In these courses, which I also designed, I have earnestly used learning technologies as much as possible to help me gain experience in this new (to me) field. I’m really interested in the cultural dimensions and applicability of learning technologies – both when you have cross-cultural collaboration in learning (as we often see in MET) but also the global export of a given learning object or technology. From my work in 510, I see cultural and cross-cultural issues as areas of growth in educational technology. 

In my downtime, I love to work with my hands: I cook, bake, can pickles and preserves, and am a passionate garment sewist.

A current sewing project - fittingly, a work in progress.

Stitchwork is beautiful to me, and I’ve included my photos of a work-in-progress to represent how seamlines can bring together contrasting fabrics – just as I hope that this course will help me to connect my knowledge of cultural dynamics with my emergent interests in business. 

The contrast between these fabrics (in weight, texture, print, scale) mirrors the sharp contrast between critical anthropology and business. However, just as these fabrics come together beautifully at the seamline, I'm hoping this course will help me find fruitful points of contact between cultural anth and business.

Posted in: Uncategorized, Week 01: Introductions