Overview
I have been an instructor at Camosun College since 1987. In that time, I have been an active participant in and evaluator of the use of educational technology to help faculty, staff and students gain digital literacy and, more recently, social media literacy skills.
In 1995 I began Learning Webs, a project to develop and deliver online instructional materials for Adult Basic Education math and English students. These were delivered in a blended mode, face-to-face combined with online instruction, in partnership with local community learning centres. As of the spring of 2006 they included the Songhees Employment and Learning Centre, Project Literacy Victoria, Saanich Adult Education Centre, Becher Bay Band Learning Centre, Victoria Native Friendship Centre and PEERS. In my time at Camosun I have created and delivered a wide range of online courseware. Currently I am focusing on adult upgrading math from the grade 10 to grade 11 levels delivered exclusively online using a variety of Web 2.0 tools. My passion is helping create a ” . . . world made transparent by true communications webs (Illich, Ivan. Deschooling Society, 1971, p. 157).” More details are available in my masters’ project.
Activities
I am involved in a wide variety of instructional, project, community, professional and curriculum development, conference and publication activities. See my blog postings at this site for further details.
Awards
I was the leader of a team that successfully applied for the Federal government’s Community Learning Networks Initiative (February 2005). This partnership of Project Literacy Victoria, the Songhees Employment Learning Centre and Camosun College is creating the South Island Learning Community.
I have also was chosen to receive support from the provincial government’s BCcampus Online Program Development Fund (awarded 2003, completed 2004) to create two new courses and related learning objects. See http://urls.bccampus.ca/h9
Award for Outstanding Canadian Distance Educator (October, 2000) from the Instructional Telecommunications Council, an affiliate of the American Association of Community Colleges.
Instruction
A wide range of subjects including English, French, math, computer studies, introduction to the Internet and HTML. Also consulting and training in the use of WebCT and other online learning technology tools. My current focus is on delivery of online math in a post-PC era.
Project Work
Member of the following teams:
Project Literacy Victoria (now Literacy Victoria) board of directors member helping implement PLVs Learning Web project to solicit donations of cast off PC’s, refurbish and make them available to PLV literacy learners. Learners will also be able to access the ABE Learning Webs upgrading program from the PLV site. Received National Literacy Secretariat funding for this project.
Co-founder and member of Camosun Distributed Education Support Team.
Member of Camosun’s International Education Team. Delivered training on online adult learning principles and the use of WebCT to Indonesian educators of SEAMOLEC.
Project work developing WebCT courses and delivering training with Centre for Curriculum, Transfer and Technology and, later BCcampus.
Professional and Curriculum Development
Continuing to develop the skills necessary to create and deliver online instructional materials, especially as they apply in the post-PC era of smart phones and tablets.
In 1995 completed a Masters in Education (Curriculum Development) at the University of Victoria.
In 1989 conducted a pilot of the Pathfinder computer managed learning system for the British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education.
Conferences
For an up-to-date list of conferences attended, search on that term above for my blog postings on conferences and webinars I’ve attended.
Presenter at the 2004 e-Learning 2004 Conference of the Instructional Telecommunications Council in San Diego, Ca.
Presenter the first (1999) WebCT conference in Vancouver, BC. Also attended the WebCT 2000 international conference at the University of Georgia.
Presenter at the last three of North Island College’s Second Annual Summer Institute on Educational Technology.
Publications
Building Learning Webs — A Decade or Two Later in the June/July 2003 edition of Connect — Canada’s Resource Publication on Technology and Adult Literacy.
Co-authored with Audrey M. Thomas Analysis Of Integrated Learning Systems And Their Use In Adult Basic Education In British Columbia for the Centre of Curriculum, Transfer and Technology.
Contributed two chapters to Electronic Pathways: Adult learning and the new communication technologies, published by the NIACE, the British National Organisation for Adult Learning.
Masters project in Adult Education and Telecommunications completed for the University of Victoria has been used by Faculties of Education at Limerick University in Ireland and George Washington University.