User:Gmorong

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 a senior 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 disadvantaged students worldwide. I collaborated on the redesign of the Art Appreciation and Techniques course, and was the instructional designer for an Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology #OERu PSYC 2111 course. I participated in the planning and hosting of the OERu 2013 founding partners meeting at Thompson Rivers University and I am currently a member of the OERu Manual Working Group and OERu MVP Task Force.

Professional Background

 * Senior Instructional Designer at Thompson Rivers University Open Learning in Kamloops, BC, Canada
 * 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 - Teaching English as a Second Language Program (TESL)

University of West Indies - Masters of Arts in Education

University of West Indies - Diploma in Education

Professional

 * Developed a Certificate in First Nations Tax Administration and a Certificate in First Nations Applied Economics (first in the world) and five online TRU MBA courses. I am now working on several online TRU MEd courses, along with many other online projects from a variety of program areas.
 * Learning more about OER, open courses, open software, open design, universal design
 * Ongoing experimentation 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
 * Hoping to become more involved with WikiEducator and sharing my teaching and instructional design expertise

Personal

 * I am member of a faculty Status of Women Committee and also co-chair of 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 get an education.
 * I give anti-discrimination and anti-racism 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.

Photos


Also visit my blog, Gail's Space.

My Projects

 * Created three microcourses forART 100, an Art Appreciation and Techniques course (originally from Saylor.org) for OERu
 * Worked on PSYC 2111, Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology, using an open textbook (collaborated with Kwantlen, an OERu partner institution)
 * Currently working with my colleagues from TRU-OL on an online course developer's resource
 * Assisted with a Tulo (First Nation economic educational institution) open textbook project
 * Modelling open practices with my TRU-OL colleagues via our KUMU Wiki site.

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)