About

Media and Technology Studies Education is one of the most productive and unique programs of its kind internationally. Five highly competitive degree specializations and concentrations are offered: BEd, Dip, MEd, MA, and PhD. We value the design, production, and use as well as the repurposing and critique of media and technology.

Students in MTSE have a successful track record of degree completion, funding and awards, publishing, and career progression. Our students in MTSE are recognized for their creative and in-depth research, and innovative learning and teaching. Faculty members in MTSE are renowned for sharing knowledge, high quality conceptual & empirical research, state-of-the-art teaching, supervisory success, grant production, and engagement across diverse communities and disciplines. Their advocacy of academic freedom, equity, and rights, critical commentary, and critique of design, media, and technology across culture and education are distinguished across a scope of disciplines.

The BEd in the Teacher Education program includes a major in Technology Education and minor in Computer Science. Technology Education is offered in collaboration with the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Diploma programs include specializations in Computing Studies and Technology Studies. In the BC school system, Computer Science and Technology Education are part of the Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies (ADST) cluster. A Certificate program is pending in Applied Design and Learning Technology. For examples of undergraduate courses, see the D&T blog and MTSE blog.

Graduate programs (MEd, MA, PhD) in MTSE focus on learning, research, and teaching in, through, and about media and technology. This includes applications and design of digital and physical processes and works as well as their economics, history, philosophy, and psychology. This also includes implications of how and why mediated and technological works are processed, coded, made, used, and recycled. Learning, research, and teaching in MTSE focus generally on interactions among media, technology, culture, nature, and people. Some of the substantive specializations in MTSE are educational media, technology, and design, advanced learning technologies, media studies, D&T, ecodesign, HCI, ICT, STEM, and STS. Our Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) sub-specilization is currently closed until further direction from the Designing for People (DFP) network.

Faculty members’ research agendas and graduate students’ research projects currently focus on augmented & virtual reality, AI & robotics, coding, cognition, computational thinking, cyberbullying, design & technology, environmental activism, equity, learning analytics, history & philosophy of media and technology, maker culture, digital media, and social media. MTSE is especially recognized for accommodating projects and students with diverse experiences in education, industry, and the non-profit sector. Current initiatives include formalizing our STEM cluster with Mathematics Education and Science Education and ADST with Business Education and Home Economics faculty and students.

Courses and programs in Media and Technology Studies are offered in a variety of flexible formats (F2F, blended, online) and degrees are laddered from the BEd through Diploma and Masters to the PhD. MTSE periodically offers an off-campus MEd cohort in Digital Learning and Curriculum. Graduate supervision for the program is also flexible (F2F, blended, online). For examples of graduate courses, see the MSTS blog and the MTSE blog.

Infrastructure in MTSE includes a design & technology teaching laboratory (e.g., 2D-3D design, coding, robotics) (Scarfe 1106) and a How We Learn Media & Technology across the Lifespan colaboratory (Scarfe 1224). The HWL colab has received support ($1.2m) from a number of funding agencies and sponsors a volume of graduate theses and dissertations.

Media and Technology Studies offers a full scope of funding opportunities, including Awards and Research Assistantships (GRA), Teaching Assistantships (GTA), and Administrative Assistantships (GAA).

Post-graduation, MTSE students excel. Teacher education students with majors or minors in computer science and technology education are in high demand. Nearly all of the MTSE Masters students are in teaching or administrative positions in the schools, faculty members in postsecondary institutions, or have advanced to doctoral programs. About 99% of our PhD graduates concentrating in MTSE are awarded postdoctoral appointments or attain faculty appointments in universities. The following faculty appointments, post-MTSE, are indicative of this success: PhD current Faculty Appointments, e.g.: • Ruth Guo, Buffalo State • Zuochen Zhang, Windsor • Yoko Namita, Ritsumeikan • Yifei Wang, Royal Roads • Karen Brennan, Harvard • Mirela Gutica, BCIT • Paula MacDowell, USask • Rachel Ralph, CDM • Yu-Ling Lee, TWU.

In a nutshell, in this era of acronyms, here are some of the things we do in MTSE at UBC, AKA: ADST, ADLT, ALT, CS, DBL, DM&T, GBL, IBL & PBL, D&T, DM & NM, ET, ETC, HCI, ICT, ID / ED / LD, IP, M&T, STEM, STS, + TBA & TBD 🙂 LOL