Today's View

Well, I guess if I want this to be even remotely successful, I have to actually post regularly. Today I was busy chaperoning for my daughter's Gr.3 class at the zoo. Fortunately it was a nice day (maybe a little hot!) and the kids were fairly well behaved so it was a good day. I have to say that one of the things I enjoy about being a full time student is the ability to partake in these little adventures with my kids. I have essentially become "Mr. Mom" the last couple of years and I enjoy it (I'm cooking dinner as I type this...). At the same time I am looking forward to getting back into the workforce.

With regards to my studies, I have to say that my interests lie in anything to do with Ed Tech. I must admit that I had somewhat of a misguided view as to what Ed Tech really was when I started. I thought it only dealt with "technology" in education, but then learned that it encompassed much more. In particular, the area if ID has become a central focus for me. I have taken 3 courses in ID and would love to get some real world experience in the field. Even though I am still defining it, my thesis work is in the area of accreditation in engineering and how internship programs support certain criteria. I would also like to look at how this type of experience can be expanded to all students, either through the regular curriculum or through university based programs. One of the main themes that I have latched onto is that of "context" Everything is better learned if the student is able to see what happens when in certain situations. I believe that it helps students to better appreciate the complexities of a problem when they are able to see the results first hand; when they are able to manipulate the variables and see the results first hand. There is no comparison for first-hand and hands-on learning. This is true, not only when designing instructional events, but also in engineering design. What looks good on paper doesn't always work in real life since the context/environment may be different. The best designers have to be able to think outside the box to discover problems and solutions that may exist outside the normal parameters. Context is, in my opinion, the most important consideration in design.

Introduction

Well, here it is. My first ever Blog post. I have been thinking about this for some time...ever since I took a Distributed Learning course as part of my graduate degree. I am currently pursuing a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering and Educational Technology. I know, the combination is a little unusual. I originally started my degree in EE, but soon realized (Ok, a year later!) that I did not want to do EE research. I had been a teacher for 5 years at a post-secondary institution, and realized that that is where my passion was. I wanted to be involved in teaching somehow, so I switched to an inter-disciplinary and have not regretted it. I am much more involved and interested in educational topics (not to mention my marks are better also!!). I have pretty much finished my course work and am beginning my thesis work. I am currently trying to nail down my focus, but it will probably be in the area of accreditation, internship programs and industry needs.

My goal for this blog is to interact with the community and expand my knowledge base. I subscribe to various RSS feeds and like to see what is going on in the area of education, specifically post-secondary/higher education. I will be posting my thoughts on what I read as well as information from my research. I hope that this will be productive for all of us.