About me
Welcome to my e-portfolio, where I summarize and reflect on my learning journey through Athabasca’s Master of Education degree with a specialization in Open, Digital, and Distance Education. I have included five artifacts that were crucial to further establishing a path of ongoing learning.
A few facts about me:
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I have been teaching Chinese University students since 2014.
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I majored in communication and studied documentary film.
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I have five grown children and two grandchildren.
Please check out this animation to learn a little more about me.
My learning journey
My Artifacts
My artifacts
My choice of artifacts reflects how my perception shifted and how my vision of teaching was impacted. I wanted to make sure that I included one artifact from each semester.
Artifact 1. MDDE 601: Introduction to Distance Education (Fall 2019) Final assignment – Flipped learning in a Chinese University
Artifact 2. MDDE 632: inclusive Leadership and Practice in Education (Winter 2020) Assignment 2 - Case study
Artifact 3 - MDDE 605: Planning and Management in Distance Education and Training (Summer 2020) Business Plan
Artifact 4- Canvas LMS- ESL Lesson - CanSpeak Talking About Food (Fall 2020)
Artifact 5 -Using WeChat for language learning in China
The vision
‘When you’re a kid, you color with reckless abandon. You color outside the lines. You color however you feel. Blue elephants, purple trees, red bears, green oceans – it’s all good. As you get older, though, everyone tells you to stay inside the lines, to color everything just like you see it. You end up painting by numbers – whether you actually paint or whether you write or sing or act or direct. I think you should create what you feel. Create outside the lines. I want to watch green oceans and red bears. I’d love to listen to purple trees. And I long to read blue elephants.’
–WRDSMTH (at Studio City, California)
My current goals
My goals have shifted as I have moved along in the program. I had enrolled in the program for practical reasons. I could do this program online and it would improve my job prospects. However, my vision of teaching online has shifted immensely. I believe that it can be a more efficient way to learn and it is the direction that much of education will take.
Using the skills that I learned through Athabasca University, I plan to continue to develop online student-centered lessons that reflect my passion for lifelong learning. I hope to build on the skills that I learned in MDDE 605 to create an English language business. I especially want to stay true to my values of keeping lessons student-centered and fulfill my commitment to lifelong learning.
A snapshot of the beginning
I left Vancouver for China in the fall of 2014 to teach English to university students in China. What an adventure that turned out to be! As well as teaching, I had traveled through China and South East Asia, learning about different countries, and realizing that it is the simple things in life that make us rich. The most heartwarming memory was the six weeks that I spend backpacking with my daughter and my grandson.
I returned to British Columbia at least annually to see my family and my friends. During the summer of 2019, I was having coffee in Vancouver with a dear friend who was also a Human Resources Manager. We reminisced about the time that we spent building a community access TV program in Vancouver. As a human resources manager, she knew about the program at Athabasca University and suggested that I enroll. It appeared to merge my storytelling and technical interests with my love of teaching. To be honest, I hadn’t put a lot of thought into returning to school, but that was an “ah-ha” moment, and I knew that it was the right thing to do.
This was why:
- Teaching online would allow me be location independent.
- I would have a master’s degree, which would make me more employable.
- I could do the courses while teaching which made it affordable.
My Athabasca journey
Within two months of making the decision, I was enrolled in two courses. The online courses worked well for me since I was living in Wuhan, China, and teaching English at a university there. I had taken distance education courses in 2003 and 2004 when I was studying for my BA Communication at Simon Fraser University and living in the coastal community of Sechelt, BC. Most of the work was done independently using a study guide and accessing the online library. I was surprised by how online education had changed.
What made this special, was that the material that I was studying was immediately relevant to the classes that I was teaching, and my students and I saw the immediate benefit. Although I had a TEFL certificate, learning about teaching was based on the job experience. Ideas such as Flipped Learning and Bloom’s Taxonomy were all innovative ideas to me as the classes were based on traditional teacher-led lectures.
Courses completed
MDDE 601: Introduction to Distance Education (Fall 2019 - Dr. Brad Eastman)
MDDE 602: Research Methods in Distance Education (Fall 2019 - Dr. Cynthia Blodgett-Griffin)
MDDE 603: Foundations of Instructional Design: Systems Analysis and Learning Theory (Winter 2020 Dr. Mary Kennedy and Dr. Robert Sochowski)
MDDE 604: Instructional Design in Distance Education (Fall 2020 Dr. Robert Power)
MDDE 605: Planning and Management in Distance Education and Training (Summer 2020 Dr. Roger Powley)
MDDE 610: Survey of Current Technical Educational Technical Educational Technology Applications (Winter 2020
Dr. Robert Power)
MDDE 614: International Issues in Open and Distance Learning (Winter 2021 Dr. Pamela Walsh)
MDDE 631: Inclusive Leadership and Practice in Education (Winter 2020 - Dr. Susan Bainbridge)
MDDE 632: Leadership in Education Innovation (Summer 2020 - Dr. Susan Bainbridge)
MDDE 690: Independent Study - Learning to Learn Online (Fall 2020 Dr. Martha Cleveland-Innes)
MDDE 694: Capstone E-portfolio Project (Winter 2021) Dr. Debra Hoven
Education
Simon Fraser University B.A. Communication 2005
I returned to school in 2001 as a mature student. Although I studied several subjects, I became fascinated by communication used as a way to control or empower, the impact of media on culture, and the concept of technology changing time and space.
The final semester was a field school in India through the Education department. The experience was life-altering and we were very lucky to be staying with families and immersed in the culture.
Education
Capilano University 2006 – 2007
I went on to complete a diploma in Documentary Film through Capilano University where I learned to script, film, and edit.
Media volunteer work
I have volunteered on several projects. While in Vancouver, I recruited and worked with a team to produce a weekly community television program that highlighted the films produced by local amateur filmmakers. We collaborated to produce short stories about local issues and events, and we highlighted local musicians and artists.