I am Christopher Ward from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in the West Indies. I’ve been a Lecturer in Computer Science at the University if the West Indies for the past 17 yrs. I’ve already done four MET courses and hope to become an instructional designer when I finish the MET programme.
My current interest is in the design of curricula (degree programmes as well as individual courses) that allow flexibility for personalized learning. Personalized learning is one of the most valuable benefits afforded by the use of technology in education. It is also an area that I would like to pursue through practice. This will call for a different skill set from my previous field of Computer Science, and I look forward to all that ETEC 522 has to offer in this regard.
This course is very different from any I have experienced before and I hope to learn many new things.
I look forward to working with everyone over the next 13 weeks.
-Chris
Hi Chris,
This course is designed somewhat like 565. We got to select the topics in that course as well (hello tin pan api!) I’m interested to see what we decide upon for this course. I’ve been fortunate to work on a couple of design projects the past few months. Do you use a particular software for our course design? I’ve been using Articulate Storyline and while I still need my programmer to do some things for me, it is a pretty cool rapid elearning technology.
Kendra
Hi Chris,
It’s good to see you again. My original goal upon entering this course was instructional design (like yourself), but the list of fields that I’m interested in doesn’t seem to want to stop expanding. I’m sure your technical background will be a huge asset to you, both in this course and in the future.
Chris
Kendra,
I’m nowhere near as connected as you are with the latest and greatest tools on offer – although I hope to be there someday. In academia my focus has been about content expertise and sound pedagogical practice. No time to explore what is available. Good Ed Tech support is important for educators in that position. Tech support does the technical stuff, while the educators get to be creative at a different level – and pick up some new tricks from the techies along the way. The lecturers need help – and I would like to give it to them. 😉
-ChrisW
Hi Chris, great to see you again. I always look forward to reading your posts, it’ll be nice working with you again this semester! 🙂