About

Who am I?

As an EdTech and MakerEd specialist, I design and deliver professional development workshops, consult with educators and students, and support the use of a wide variety of educational technologies. I have over 30 years of experience in education, with a master’s degree in educational technology and undergraduate degrees in psychology and education. I am also a certified teacher and teacher-librarian in Ontario, Canada.

My mission is to empower today’s teachers and learners by leveraging constructionism, project-based learning, and Maker Education in the service of learning. I have contributed to research, publications, and podcasts on these topics, and have presented my work at national and international conferences. I was also one of the authors of Peel District School Board’s vision document for modern learning, which influenced the board’s strategic plan and teaching practices. I am passionate about integrating coding, MakerEd, and STEAM into the curriculum and creating engaging and meaningful learning experiences for students and educators.

My Specific Interests

I am interested in educational issues that often involve competing tensions or issues such as instructionism vs. constructivism/onism, learning vs. education, oppression vs. empowerment, learner centered vs. teacher centered, play vs. work, learning to code vs. coding to learn, using technology vs. integrating technology. Sometimes, I write about false dilemma fallacies such as iPad vs. Chromebook, block vs. text coding, and so forth. Actually, I hesitate to characterize any issue using an X vs. Y structure because no debate is ever that simple. Reality is almost always located somewhere on a continuum between extremes. Nevertheless, I find X vs. Y and handy way to summarize and simplify as long as the caveats are noted, too. All thoughts and ideas expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect my employer

Making

I have been a maker for my whole life. As a kid I took apart almost every gift I ever received and then built other things from the parts… such audio mixing-boards, loudspeakers, robots, and radios. I spent endless of hours building with cardboard, string, tape, paper, and Lego. I also loved to write stories, create photographs and videos, draw, and write music. Creating and building things were/are the only times in my life when I experience flow so that idea has also become a significant line of professional inquiry for me:

How can educators support a maker learning culture in the youth of today?
How do we foster both creativity and critical analysis as equal players in the educational endeavours of teachers and students alike?

A sample of things I have written: