Thanks for joining us here at the EnT! We take a deep dive into personnel and/or personal factors associated with the educational endeavour, writ large! We hope you will be as stoked about this as we are!

When we started all we had were our handsomeness, talent, and experience! Then we started to figure out what we’re doing! #ednontech

It’s yours to keep, this audio, if you want! #ednontech

Here we are! In the past 28 or so hours since recording this episode, we’ve put 3 new episodes of the new Writers on Writing series of interviews associated with my role as an English prof! Plus putting together this here EnT! As such, I’ve precious, precious little to add here… as I’m teaching in a few hours and have a lecture still to prepare!

I am grateful to Doug for this topic! Personality, personal integrity, accountability, and other considerations of the person as a whole are significant to the educational endeavour, generally! Looking back on it now, I see that the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model and particularly the construct of social presence— which I studied as part of my University of Calgary Education Doctorate (Ed.D)— informs my perspective on much of what we discussed today! And, further, the case study research method as well!

Given these outstanding areas yet to be fully explored, I’m hopeful we’ll be able to revisit this topic again before too long… and possibly further explorations may be warranted!

My reading list at the moment is veering towards the texts I’m teaching for my classes this term, and also lately a collection of Nietzsche’s essays On Truth and Untruth… I am finding this somewhat bracing, and even strengthening in the… uh… rather unique economic and political times we find ourselves entangled in! And of course, taking into account the effects these can have on a person’s general sense of wellness and wellbeing!

As such, my real last word for now is: take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. Make adjustments to your plans or activities as needed. Wellness first, in all things, pals!

Much appreciation and respect to Doug for leading this stellar convo!

Note that these posts are NOT meant to be deeply researched historical accounts, but how I saw and encountered developments in my personal life.

Trying to develop a vision for teaching and learning

Bates, Tony. “Https://www.tonybates.ca/2025/03/25/a-personal-history-29-strategic-planning-for-e-learning-a-personal-case-study/.” Online Learning and Distance Education Resources, edited by Tony Bates, Contact North, 25 Mar. 2025, www.tonybates.ca/2025/03/25/a-personal-history-29-strategic-planning-for-e-learning-a-personal-case-study/

Recently, theorists have argued for a cultural dimension in the design process and the need to provide culturally sensitive learning environments.

McLoughlin, C., & Oliver, R. (2000). Designing learning environments for cultural inclusivity: A case study of indigenous online learning at tertiary level. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 16(1).

Edtech is also an area to which people come from other disciplines, so there is no shared set of concepts or history. This can be liberating but also infuriating. I’m sure I was not alone in emitting the occasional sigh when during the MOOC rush of 2012, so many “new” discoveries about online learning were reported—discoveries that were already tired concepts in the edtech field.

Weller, M. (2018). Twenty years of EdTech. Educause Review Online, 53(4), 34-48.

“But government rarely acts on the basis of need, want, fact, or logic.”

Teillet, J. (2019). The North-West is our Mother: The story of Louis Riel’s people, the Métis Nation. HarperCollins.

In this special issue, “A New Era for Educational Technology: Opportunities and Conversations,” we invited eight teams to share insights from their research on innovative uses of educational technologies. As we hope you will see throughout this issue, these papers address crucial and interconnected issues and develop shared insight into EdTech.

We hope that this special issue sparks further conversation among researchers, educators, policymakers, and EdTech developers regarding the growing and diversifying roles of educational technology at all levels.

Kim, D., Borowiec, K., & Wortham, S. (2024). A New Era in EdTech: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities. ECNU Review of Education, 7(2), 252-257.

Join us as we delve into these subjects and more, sharing our perspectives and experiences along the way.

https://oyos.ca/ENT/

Please visit the Ed non-Tech Sandbox for examples, experiments, memes, and other ephemera discussed during the podcast!

Stranach, Matt, and Doug Reid. “Conversations about education, technology, and culture.” #Ed non-Tech (EnT) Podcast, edited by Matt Stranach, 506 Consulting NB, 22 Mar. 2025, analogue-trope.ca/podcast/.

Narrative

How can the personal narratives of educators help inform how we move forward?

Emitted an occasional sigh