User:Sujasam/Sandbox

My Profile
My name is Gail Morong. I am originally from Trinidad and Tobago, but I now live in Kamloops, BC, Canada. I taught high school math and science to very bright students in Trinidad from 1980 to 1993, and have taught many different courses to various types of learners (e.g. adult, at-risk, learning-disabled, ESL) in Canada since then. To me, good education is all about individualizing teaching and learning approaches, using the toolbox of skills and knowledge accumulated over time, to match the needs of various target audiences.

I am now an instructional designer at Thompson Rivers University Open Learning and that has opened up a whole new world of learning and opportunities for me. Things are changing so rapidly in the world of distributed learning that it is hard to keep up, but I am trying. I strongly believe that education can be the way out of poverty for many people (as in my case)and I have an interest in all open initiatives that benefit students. I collaborated on the redesign of the Art Appreciation and Techniques #OERuART100 course, and participated in the planning and hosting of the OERu 2013 meeting at Thompson Rivers University.I am currently a member of the OERu Manual Working Group.

Professional Background

 * Instructional Designer at Thompson Rivers University Open Learning in Kamloops, BC, Canada since 2008
 * High school teacher at many schools in Trinidad and Tobago and Canada from 1980 to 2008.

Education
Thompson Rivers University - Graduate Certificate in Online Teaching and Learning

Thompson Rivers University - TESL

University of West Indies - Masters of Arts in Education

University of West Indies - Diploma in Education

Professional

 * Completed the Thompson Rivers University online Graduate Certificate in Online Teaching and Learning (EDDL) program in 2013.
 * Enjoying working with subject matter experts on course development projects from various subject areas. Worked on 2 online First Nations Certificates and 5 MBA courses. Now working on several online MEd and other courses.
 * Hoping to become more involved with WikiEducator and sharing my teaching and instructional design expertise.
 * Learning more about OER, open courses, open software, open design, universal design - member of OERu and WikiEducator Google groups.
 * Experimenting with new technologies, especially for open collaboration among students at a distance.
 * Learning about best practice in use of media in online courses.
 * Interested in blended learning models.

Personal

 * I am chair of a faculty Status of Women Committee and an Equity Committee because I am passionate about diversity and equity issues.I see open initiatives as a great way to help women and other equity-seeking groups.
 * I give anti-discrimination workshops.
 * I love dance (I used to teach various types of dance for many years).
 * I love to travel and see various parts of the world.

My Projects

 * Worked on adapting and wikifying ART 100, an Art Appreciation and Techniques (originally from Saylor.org) for OERu.
 * Working on PSYC 2111, Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology, using an open textbook
 * I worked with my colleagues from TRU-OL on an online course developer's resource.
 * Currently working on an open Psychology course project using an open textbook (collaborating with another OERu partner institution)
 * Assisted with a Tulo (First Nation economic educational institution)open textbook project

My Sandbox
/My sandbox/

My Reflection
"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain." (Vivian Greene)