Who the heck are we?

Clinician Health and Researcher

My global experiences in health and education reinforce my belief that creativity and culture are integral to learning and development. To create as individuals and as communities strengthens identity and reinforces learning in multiple ways. Its natural expansion migrates through nurturing to education and health. Key importance is the development of critical thinking skills to assess rapid changes under the paradigm of globalization today. Technology in education plays an over-arching role. Of note, Increasing autocratic tendencies, are counter influences on all systems including education and health. Education about the democratic process, therefore, is crucial and is supported through Technology. Democracy underpins all aspects of society, including the benchmarks of education and health. Teaching about democracy, how it is won and how it is protected, is an integral part of education. I believe, with responsible design, technology has a major role in growth and development.

Technical Writer and Teacher's Assistant

Prior to the pandemic, I worked as TA at both elementary and higher education levels, as well as working as a technical writer for an engineering firm. The sudden switch to online learning and working set in motion by the pandemic was actually what made me look into pursuing a Masters of Educational Technology--seeing the struggles that the schools and firm I worked at to adjust to a new fully remote environment also suggested an urgency in reevaluating how much schools relied on conventional learning environments and their responses to crisis. While the world may stop in light of these events, the pursuit of education and knowledge never does.

Corporate Educator and Strategic Storyteller

I am an experienced infection prevention and public health educator, blogger, and content marketer. My personal mission is to educate, nurture, and empower people to have the confidence to think differently and share their knowledge through storytelling.

Instructional Designer

I support university instructors in course design and in using various learning technologies in their curriculum. When the pandemic hit, moving the entire community online was a challenging process. We went from supporting those who chose to use technologies in their courses to all instructors, whether they wanted to or not. This forced many to re-evaluate their teaching strategies and assessment practices, pushing them away from traditional ways of teaching. - something that is otherwise very difficult to achieve in higher ed. Many of these changes have been for the better of education and to some extent, this crisis has pushed a positive shift in higher ed that would have otherwise taken decades. With that said, we still have a long way to go. I look forward to what the future brings.

Librarian

As a librarian, the pandemic impacted various libraries tremendously. The first thought was how to provide support to our patrons and still remain within the COVID-19 regulations. Many libraries turned to curbside service for patrons. Since the library was closed therefore books were not accessible. The libraries had skeleton staff and would select the items requested. To this day, this service is still available in many libraries. Librarians had to rethink how they would provide service to students, faculty, or the general public. Many still needed research assistance; therefore, virtual sessions were implemented using either Zoom or Google Meet. Many people welcomed this support, and now this service is standard. The unfortunate side is the connection with patrons, the building of relationships has been more complex since the pandemic. Libraries have implemented new services but are now rebuilding the connections they may have lost with communities, students, or academic departments.

I teach Middle School Math, Science and Technology education, and I got to experience pandemic teaching and learning firsthand. Ironically, my learning experience as a graduate student in UBC's Masters of Educational Technology (MET) did not change in any substantial way, but I think that speaks to how innovative a program it already was. However, as a teacher, I found that the pandemic spurred me to change my practice in ways I had always "meant to", but that I never seemed to have the time or energy for. I began to Screencast lessons into online videos so that I could restructure my class as a "flipped" model that prioritized discussions and activities rather than lectures, and with my partners, we created systems like a "choice board" of learning so that students could have more choice over what they learn and when. Though I continue to see student struggles concerning their mental health and well-being during this crisis, I think that increasing social-emotional learning will help students and staff manage these new challenges even better than we did before the pandemic.