My name is Kylie and I am excited that this course is my tenth and final course of the MET program! I am sure looking forward to that finish line and graduating in July. Now more than ever I have realized the importance in pursuing a degree in educational technology. It has been great to utilize what we have been learning on some level. Of course, it is different than in the classroom and I miss my students very much, but I feel all the previous courses have equipped me for the shift to online learning.
I am a grade 4/5 teacher in beautiful Victoria, BC. I have been teaching for seven years now mainly in Victoria, but I have also ventured out to London, England for a couple years of my teaching career. I have mainly taught intermediate grades (4/5), but have also taught at middle school grades 6 – 8, but I have found my niche and preference to be intermediate. Over the years, I have been a mix of a classroom teacher, Remedy teacher (similar to learning support), and Teacher on Call.
I am born and raised on the island in a small town, Lake Cowichan. It is a stunning spot to visit in the summer months, go camping, boating, wake surfing, and enjoy the lake and the sunshine. When I am not working or doing course work (or in a pandemic for some of these things) you can find me playing squash, cooking, baking, gardening, travelling, socializing, and enjoying time with friends and family. In the picture below you’ll see my parent’s golden doodle Willow. I like to pretend she’s mine! Such a lovely pup!
Hi Kylie, nice to meet another islander. I was born in Nanaimo. I am taking this and 540 so I will finish with you. So exciting.
Hi Kylie,
Nice to see you again! I think we were in 532 together last term 🙂 This is my last course too, and I’m very excited about it!
What a lovely photo! Thick carpet, warm fireplace, and an adorable dog, you have the best life ever. I’m imaging that it is snowing outside …
Looking forward to learning together in this course.
Ceci
Yes we were!!
It was definitely a cooler day outside. But yes I love my carpet…spend many hours on there cozied up in front of my fireplace on the winter days. Great way to warm up my cold feet haha!
Hi Kylie!
Willow looks so adorable – I’d pretend she was mine, too, if I were you 😀
Congratulations on your final course and getting to the end of this journey! I felt the same way about 524, but exactly opposite for 533. Maybe because I teach high school Chemistry, I found 533 to be most useful for my context. I can totally understand your perspective on it though, and it was a lot of work for sure.
I miss my students very much also, and the shift to remote learning has been interesting. I do not mind the technology – we just switched over to Office 365 instead of Google Suite so I am now using MS Teams to communicate with my classes. However, it doesn’t feel like authentic online learning to me, not yet at least. While I am trying to use the theories and tools I have gained from this program so far, I still feel that this is more like patchwork, or putting a band-aid to make it work. I guess it might be mainly because it is mid-semester, not mandatory, and in the middle of a pandemic! What do you think?
Haha that is funny Binal… That makes sense why you found 533 more useful than I did…it all comes down to what areas we are interested in and teach!
I agree about the unauthentic, forced typed online learning that is happening. At the beginning of the switch to online learning I thought to myself…I almost have a Master’s in online learning and I still don’t feel full prepared for the switch, but it was because the students weren’t prepared with tools to be successful at home. If they signed up for an online class it would be completely different!
Glad to see a familiar face in one of these courses. Looking forward to working with you this semester.
You’ve hit the nail on the head – the students do not have the necessary tools, and the courses weren’t necessary designed for authentic online delivery either. Although I’d like to think that I am sloooooowly transitioning into it in different ways… time will tell I suppose?
Hi Anne,
Congrats on almost hitting your half way mark! It feels so good to be at that point.
As far as courses go (and keep in mind I am a Grade 4/5 teacher so I am referring to the usefulness of the courses for me at the elementary level) I would have to say I really enjoyed the Arts an Humanities ETEC 532. As a culminating project you do an inquiry based project, so you get to focus on what you’re passionate about. My group chose to explore AR and VR. I also enjoyed Text and Technologies in ETEC 540. The prof has different assignments, you created a website (also good experience) and post all work on there, and it is a lot less discussion based and forum posts which is so refreshing because it gets a bit monotonous posting in those discussion forums and reading them all all the time! I found I learned a lot from ETEC 524, but it was but I found some of the instructions to be a bit tedious or unclear, but was happy with the tech tools I learned in the course. One course I didn’t enjoy because I found it was aimed more at a high school level and some of the sites referenced were quite outdated was Math – ETEC 533. I also found it to be way more work than all the rest of the courses, tons of discussion posts, which I don’t find that useful. I find working on projects with a group to be where the most learning happens for me. Oh and the summer institute course Gaming – ETEC 565S to be AMAZING! The power of face to face learning is incredible and it was great to meet people that you had only met online. And the profs were fabulous. So if you get a chance to take a summer institute, I highly recommend. It is FULL on and the week after you have tons of work to do, but it was so worth it!
I hope this helps!! I look forward to reading your “Howdy” and seeing what your education (or not education) background is!
Cool, I’m actually signed up for the digital games summer institute this year, which will unfortunately be online this year, but I think we’ll be doing virtual class for that intensive week and I’m curious how that rolls out. It’ll be a cool to experience another format for online learning, so even if it’s not as good as the original in-person plan, it’ll still be a good to experience another approach to online learning. And I live in Vancouver so I can still enjoy the beach here after class! Haha
Awesome. If it’s the same profs as last year, you’re in for a treat! They will make it great either way.
Yes the beach is key! I live just minutes away from he ocean in Victoria. So I headed down there last night to sit and clear the mind. Love it!
Anne – I am registered for the digital games summer institute as well for this summer. I keep wondering if I should stay on or wait to do it in person! But you’re right, it will be an interesting virtual experience regardless!
Hi Kylie, Congrats on hitting your last course! I’m on #5 now, got a long way to go still 🙂
Of everything you’ve taken, what were some of your favourite courses or projects?