Monthly Archives: January 2017

My name is Elizabeth, and I currently live in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada where I work as the coordinator of the NCME (Northern Continuing Medical Education) program within the local health authority. I primarily work with physicians to support them with accreditation and planning educational events/courses. I previously worked in the public school system in the lower mainland before transitioning to the post-secondary system where I worked for ten years. Prior to my current job, I worked at a college in Alberta for several years as their Educational Technology Services Facilitator. I implemented and maintained the college’s learning management system, worked with faculty on developing best practices as it related to incorporating technology in their courses, and collaborated with faculty to design their online/blended courses. I am really interested in course development and hope to return to work in post-secondary education this year as an instructional designer. This is my 9th course in the MET program. I have taken the following courses: ETEC 500, 510, 511, 512, 532,  540, 565A and 565G. I am looking forward to examining current research and exploring technology-enhanced learning experiences in math and science this semester.

Elizabeth

Hello! My name is Michelle Furlotte and this is my last MET course before graduation. I live in Thunder Bay, Ontario, which is in Northern Ontario, Canada. When taking this course I hope to gain further insights into incorporating technology in new ways in the science and math areas and I also hope to learn about new technology tools and how these are used to further explore science in our world. I also look forward to the wealth of ideas and experiences that are shared in this course. I have 2 children, Eden, 9 and Ariah 7 and a partner, Peter. I love to challenge myself, have adventures, travel, learn, laugh and I appreciate blunt, to the point people. I find it hard to summarize myself because I have many interests and I’m constantly changing my interests and myself as I move through life! I love walking in nature, skiing, dancing, good music, Barbados and anywhere with a beach, art, books, big smiles and positive vibes. Now I sound corny! Anyways…I’m looking forward to getting to know all of you and learn from you.  I do hope that I will get help working through this course as I teach elementary school (and have for many years) and from what I have read it is high school based.  That being said, I hope that the ideas explored can be modified to suit my teaching and professional practice. Professionally I am involved in several provincial committees, one of which explores professional development and curriculum and how these are implemented and how they affect educators and students, I teach grade 2 full time, I facilitate educators from across the province as they pursue action research projects, I recently published a research paper re: inquiry learning and I continue to look for opportunities to grow in my profession and help other educators. I am passionate about progressive education and also passionate about making sound choices and not just implementing new initiatives without debate and without sound research and self reflection. If you are interested in my professional pursuits I am on “Linked In”, and this space provides a more detailed summary of my career.  I look forward to getting to know you in this space!

Halloooo!

In an effort to be “creative”, I created my introduction using Prezi, only to realize that the UBC WordPress prevents code to be embeded.  It is entirely possible that it is possible to embed code, and I am simply unable to figure it out! In the meantime, here is a link to my Prezi…

Link to Prezi is here.
Cheers,
Dana 🙂

My name is Samia Khan and I am your course facilitator for ETEC 533. I’m thrilled to be teaching this course again this year, and as one of the course designers, it is especially exciting to see how the course evolves from year to year as new digital technologies and platforms are included in the revised versions. We’ve made every effort in this course to focus on digital technologies that are freely available so that you can use them independently of the course when it is done.

As a bit of background, I used to be a working scientist before embarking upon a career as a school teacher. I enjoyed teaching science and did so from Grades 7-12 (science, biology, and chemistry), during which time I implemented several programs for marginalized youth living in troubled urban parts of the city. I decided to do a Masters because I wished to have some protected time to reflect on my teaching practice. Drawing upon some early teaching experiences with digital technology, I discovered in during my doctorate that certain teaching approaches and strategies coupled with appropriate uses of digital technology promoted very powerful learning for students, in comparison to some of the other teaching approaches I studied. The use of digital technology to teach science in classrooms became the topic for my dissertation.

Now, my related interests are in the development of technology-enhanced learning environments to support knowledge generation and mobilization among teachers. It has resulted in the publication of a new book on mobile apps for teacher education. I also design new digital technologies, such as computer simulations, for use with children and young adults. This work has resulted in the release of another book with colleagues on teaching with computer simulations. Last November, it was also wonderful for me to share some of this research and reflections on the recent Nobel Prizes awarded in Chemistry during my keynote address at an international conference on virtual worlds and simulations. My current research projects also involves working closely in teacher education on STEM for children who need help. Our partnerships among various groups, such as teacher education, NGOs, working teachers, schools, and community coordinators has been fulfilling. I enjoy working closely with my graduate and undergraduate student team to support their projects, and I volunteer in schools to work with teachers and children. This last term, I volunteered to teach in a kindergarten/grade 1 class for their astronomy unit. It was wonderful to hear children’s perspectives on Earth and its position in space as well as to use digital technology to explore their helio and geocentric views. There is more written about my area of research in the About Your instructor Page in the General Introductions to the Course.

Your insights, expertise, and prior experience will be important in charting your own path for professional development. They will also be vital to lesson activities (c.f. your autobiographical experiences with technology; MAL1:Auto e-ography). I look forward to this course and being with you on your journey in educational technology.

Samia