Next week Leah MacVie, an Instructional Designer at Canisius College, will be presenting on how to prepare faculty to teach online as part of our Innovators in Online Learning webinar series. Leah is what we call a Chalkie, a seasoned user that loves SoftChalk! We thought it would be fun to do an informal interview with Leah and find out what makes her tick—beyond education technology and teaching teachers to teach. Here’s what Leah had to say.
Hello SoftChalk community! It’s been a pleasure to work with SoftChalk over the years and I love discussing this wonderful product with anyone who happens to inquire. I’ve been through implementations at two colleges and I keep bringing it with me wherever I go. No matter if they are teaching face-to-face, hybrid, or online, faculty just love this product. It is an honor to be a “Featured Chalkie.”
The 5 Questions
What gets you going in the morning?
Eggs! I love starting my day out with two fried eggs, green tea and a big glass of cold water- a nice combination of different pieces of health advice I’ve received over the years. Then, like any other new Ph.D. student, I bury my nose in a book, post a reply in the discussion forum, and work on creating a mindmap for my next paper—all before 8am!
When you were 10, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A back up dancer for Janet Jackson. I sometimes think of the 10 year old me as a different person, but even then, I was a realist—I knew Janet Jackson would last and we would be able to keep dancing while she kept making music. It is unfortunate that my dream never came true, but teaching teachers to teach online comes in a pretty nice second. 😎
If you could travel to anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
Realistic places on my list include: Norway/Sweden/Finland/Russia (these are listed together because I hope to take one of those Norwegian Cruises someday :), Italy, Spain, France, Wales, Morocco, Ghana, Egypt, Greece, Germany/Austria (in one trip), China, Australia, and perhaps Alaska. These countries were chosen because I really love landscapes and architecture, but more importantly I love sampling. Some people are only into vacationing in a country and they don’t care if they get off the beaten path, where I like to treat travel as if I was in Epcot—seeing and sampling different parts of each country.
My non-realistic place I want to visit is the stratosphere.
What’s your favorite feature of SoftChalk?
There are many, but to be decisive, the Labeling Activity is powerful and can be used across most disciplines in a variety of ways.
Where do you go to find out what’s new in the education technology world?
Twitter. There are plenty of hashtags out there for education, but #edtech ranks as #1 in my book for discovering best practices and new educational technologies.Find me @leahmacvie!
Learn more about how Leah prepares faculty to teach online by registering for her upcoming Innovator session on October 31, 2013 at 2:00PM ET.
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