Journeys always start somewhere. In this case, we begin our tour in Halong Bay, Vietnam. From here, the journey takes us to various destinations in South East Asia. Our first stop after leaving Halong Bay will be in Chiang Mai. Click on the maps or buttons in each section to gain access to a full tour of each spot. Destinations contain links to presentations & websites (TOUR HIGHLIGHTS and SIDE TOURS), as well as essays, projects and research papers (PAPER TRAILS).
Descriptions below in italics below are taken from the UBC MET Course Calendar descriptors. These descriptions can be seen as "travel brochure" for each destination; they are followed by a brief reflection on each course, and a summary of some of the artifacts that can be found within.
Descriptions below in italics below are taken from the UBC MET Course Calendar descriptors. These descriptions can be seen as "travel brochure" for each destination; they are followed by a brief reflection on each course, and a summary of some of the artifacts that can be found within.
Destination 1: Chiang Mai (Fall 2014)
ETEC 511: Foundations of Educational Technology. This case-based course addresses the cultural-historical, ecological-natural, ethical-personal, existential-spiritual, sociopolitical and technical-empirical dimensions of technology with implications for curriculum and instructional design. How, why and to what degree have media and technology been incorporated into, or changed by, education and what foundations underlie these processes? The course is designed from a basis that educational media and learning technologies are not merely tools; educational premises are neither fully durable nor pliable; and actors or agents of education are not merely humans. It begins with an exploration of instructional design and case-based reasoning, proceeds through disciplinary and interdisciplinary foundations of e-learning, educational technology, learning technologies, and new media and concludes with the relatively neglected existential-spiritual dimension.
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The journey from HOME to Desination 1: Chiang Mai (ETEC 511)
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The first course I took in the MET program was "ETEC 511: Foundations of Educational Technology". This was where I first remember seeing the term "constructivism", and also where I learned that Educational Technology is not merely the literal use of technology in the classroom; or rather, it is - but the word "technology" is more ripe with meaning that I had ever considered. In this destination, you will have the opportunity to see a section of a course Wiki I built collaboratively called "The History and Philosophy of Educational Technology". I also had the opportunity to consider Copyright Law, and wrote an essay about how I consider current laws to be cumbersome and restrictive in schools. Please click the button below to journey to "Chang Mai" to see the artifacts I have described.
Destination 2: Chiang Rai (Winter 2015)
ETEC 500: Research Methodology in Education. This course introduces students to issues and practices in a range of educational research methodologies. Through interactive modules, students learn about and engage with research strategies to promote an understanding of how research impacts our lives and educational pursuits. This course examines the methodological possibilities available to those reading, reviewing or conducting educational research. Research is viewed as a way of thinking critically about education issues and practice and is seen as central to the conduct of all education. We assume that education is advanced through the critical application of research and believe it is enhanced when educators practice with a disposition of inquiry and wonder.
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The journey to Destination 2: Chiang Rai
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This course was extremely useful as an educator and the best part of my journey in the program. I learned a lot about the technical aspects of educational research, and found it to be much like scientific research; there are qualitative and quantitative data, error calculations, peer review... Students in this course were asked to come up with a research question and proposal, and I decided to examine the role of personal devices in the classroom. This is mostly due to the fact that at that time, my own school was beginning a 1-to-1 laptop program. Some teachers argued that tablets were a better choice, so my proposal asks the question: Which device works best in a 1-to-1 program? It includes a full description of how such a study could be conducted, and I'm hoping that studies such as this actually are conducted; there are times when I wonder if tablets would have been a better choice in my current school! For more information on my research proposal, please visit "Chiang Rai".
Destinations 3 & 4: Luang Prabang (Summer 2015)
ETEC 565A: Learning Technologies: Selection, Design and Application. ETEC 565A is an online seminar that provides several theoretical frameworks to assist educators in evaluating, selecting and using various learning technologies. Students will gain hands-on experience using a range of learning technologies and platforms: web-publication, course management systems, communication tools, community and collaboration tools, multimedia, and social software tools. Students will complete a number of small assignments using different learning technologies as well as a larger project in which they bring several of these technologies together to design materials and activities to support student learning.
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The journey to Destinations 3 & 4: Luang Prabang
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ETEC 510: Design of Technology-Supported Learning Environments. This course is an online seminar examining research, and exemplary media tools, as these inform the design of technology-mediated environments. We will explore constructivist and sociocultural theories of mind, learning and instruction and their significance for the design of educational technologies and environments. Students will design a technology-supported learning environment.
I have decided to group these two courses together in "Luang Prabang" for several reasons. This was the first time I had taken two courses at the same time, in the summer of 2015, and I found that they actually worked quite well as concurrent courses. ETEC 565A focused mainly on learning management systems (LMS) like Moodle and Connect, while in ETEC 510 I had the opportunity to see how various interfaces could work in the delivery of content. I ultimately decided to create a course project for Science 8 on Weebly, as it offered the most flexibility; interestingly enough, my school since purchased a site license with Weebly and I have built a number of courses using its user-friendly interface, both private and password-protected. For the ETEC 565A course, we were asked to use Wordpress for the course-specific ePortfolio, so in "Luang Prabang" link directly to that site as a "Side Tour" to Borobudur. This course served to completely turn me off ever using Wordpress to build anything, and the most interesting artifact I built for that course can be found on the HOME page: a Prezi on what brought me into education in the first place. Artifacts from ETEC 510 centre mainly around a "Water Systems" and iBooks project that I have since used in several of my Science 8 courses since its creation. Please visit "Luang Prabang" to learn more!
Destination 5: Vang Vieng (Fall 2015)
ETEC 512: Applications of Learning Theories to Instruction. This course is intended as an overview of the major theoretical approaches to learning, especially as they are applied to educational contexts. As will become clear during ETEC512, there is no 'best' theory that can account for all aspects of human learning. As such, the overarching objective of this course is to expose students to a variety of theories, each of which has potential to be useful in understanding learning and teaching in a variety of settings. However, for this information to be useful, educators need to have an understanding of when and how different approaches should be utilized. To this end, many of the assignments and activities of this course will focus on applying different theoretical perspectives to ill-defined, realistic learning situations. In addition, one of the goals of this course is for students to develop a coherent, explicit sense of their own beliefs about learning, and how the various theories hold together and are related to, or influenced by, the other perspectives.
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The journey to Destination 5: Vang Vieng
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In this course, I was able to delve deeper into cognitive theory, educational research, and more about the founding theorists on constructivism: Piaget and Vygotsky. It was interesting to be able to apply some of their learning theories to modern education and 21st century digital skills and classrooms; please visit "Vang Vieng" to learn more.
Destination 6: Wat Xieng Thong (Winter 2016)
ETEC 533: Technology in the Mathematics and Science Classroom. This advanced graduate course aims to address contemporary, international research on how people teach and learn mathematics and science with digital technologies. There have been recent advancements in both social science, cognitive psychology and computing that have had an impact on our understanding of how people learn science and math. As well, ongoing research on math and science education, teacher practice, curriculum studies, and pedagogy is uncovering the complexity associated with learning and teaching within dynamic learning environments. The integration of three disciplines: cognitive psychology, computer science, and education, provides us with a framework to study the cognitive and social affordances of technology in the mathematics and science classroom.
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The journey to Destination 6: Wat Xieng Thong
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This course brought into focus the idea of 'transfer' of knowledge: how does a learner actually take in new knowledge and demonstrate understanding? Simple regurgitation is not learning. As the BC Curriculum shifts towards a focus on Skills, Personal and Social learning, and Higher-Order thinking, many of the papers, technologies, and discussions that occurred in this course (especially as it relates to my own profession as a science teacher) were very timely and informative. If your school is using (or intending to use ) Google Apps for Education, you will find a very useful website linked here called "Get Going with GAFE" - it included tutorials, tips and tricks for using GAFE in your school. Please visit Wat Xieng Thong to learn more.
Destinations 7 & 8: Huế (Summer 2016)
ETEC 530: Constructivist Strategies for E-Learning. This course provides the opportunity for participants to examine teaching that aims to learners' learning. It will examine literature on current research and practice concerning contemporary constructivist instructional strategies considered to be canonically effective. It will provide the opportunity to examine personal beliefs/worldviews about the nature of knowledge and truths and how these impact or influence our pedagogy of teaching and learning. Key instructional approaches and methods including project-based teaching/learning and cooperative learning will be critically discussed. The principles employed in these strategies will be considered and applied to practical experiences of designing and delivering online instructions. Existing learning sites will be critically examined through constructivist theories of teaching and learning.
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The journey to Destinations 7 & 8: Hué
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ETEC 522: Ventures in Learning Technology. The course provides an online immersion in the global learning technologies marketplace with particular emphasis on emerging markets for learning technologies in public and commercial domains. ETEC 522 is delivered in a case-study modality from a venture and market analysis perspective. One of your primary learning resources, and creative outlet, will be a “pitch pool” of authentic 12-minute venture presentations by leaders of current, real-world learning enterprises spanning a range of application domains and market opportunities. Examples representing “entrepreneurial” and “intrapreneurial” ventures will provide a balance between corporate and institutional enterprise. As the foundation for practical learning, you will undertake the critical analysis of ventures and venture creation individually and in groups.
For the second time, I decided to 'double up' during the summer months and take two courses. Again, these two courses worked well with each other; ETEC 530 allowed me to dive deeper into constructivist theory and inquiry-based learning in the science classroom, while ETEC 522 gave me the opportunity to look ahead to ventures in technology that may provide a clue as to how this type of learning may be enhanced in the future. Please visit Huế to learn more.
Destination 9: Mỹ Sơn (Fall 2016)
ETEC 531: Cultural and New Media Studies. This course focuses on understanding media and associated freedoms of cultural expression and the press for learning, teaching, and public pedagogy. Media studies is a dynamic discipline tailored to exploring youth, culture, and education through concepts or techniques such as articulation, framing, regulation, remediation, representation, and transcoding. In addition to understanding culture, media, and the process of meaning-making, this course focuses on making and managing media across formats, cultural expression, and civic engagement. Making minimal distinction among (the) media of, on, and in education, the course provides a survey of media studies and new media with an emphasis on media education and literacy. Media education and literacy are among the most relevant challenges to “official” knowledge and represent key movements in the sociology of curriculum. Hence, this course balances practice with ethical, legal, and theoretical aspects and emphasizes the design of curriculum and courses for teaching media studies and for integrating media literacy across the curriculum.
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The journey to Destination 9: Mỹ Sơn
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This course was a wonderful way to wrap up the core of my learning in the M.E.T. program - how culture and new media are influenced by, and how they influence, the modern classroom. Just as the world sees the rise of populism and what some call "fake news", we are seeing how some groups are being marginalized, misrepresented, and what role the media plays in all of this. In this course I created a video about how women are presented in STEM fields, as well as a senior science Media Study Guide. Please visit Mỹ Sơn to learn more.
Destination 10: The Marble Mountains of Đà Nẵng (Winter 2017)
ETEC 590: Graduating Project. ETEC 590 is an elective in the MET program, designed for students who wish to meet the requirements of the Teacher Qualification Services in the Province of British Columbia for a "capstone research experience" in their program. This is a requirement for BC teachers who wish to qualify for salary category six.
The e-Portfolio you are currently viewing was created as part of my capstone research experience and Graduating Project for the M.E.T. program. I chose the Marble Mountains of Đà Nẵng as a representative of this course: I am 'solidifying' my knowledge and being given the opportunity to 'reflect' on the program as a whole. Please visit The Marble Mountains to give me feedback about this website, so that it can be improved! |
The journey to Destination 10: Marble Mountains of Đà Nẵng
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