User:Dougsymington

=My Profile= I live on the south end of Vancouver Island on the Coast Salish traditional territories, in Saanichton, BC.

I'm keenly interested in using "free" and "open" web-based tools and resources to include and involve groups and individual disenfranchised and/or marginalized learners.

I strongly believe that everyone can learn, and learning is for life; and the internet has a key role to play in making this happen.

Professional Background
My professional background includes working with "at risk" populations of high-school students as well as social-services and remedial intervention programs based at identifying and addressing lack of workplace readiness skills for adult learners. I continue to volunteer for a number of education, social-services, and sports organizstions and believe in the importance of being a contributing member to one's community, and am particularly interested in the opportunities Wikieducation presents in this regard.

Education
My education includes a Master of Education degree from the Ontario Institute of Education at the University of Toronto. I also have a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from New College at the University of Toronto.

I also attended the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary, Alberta where I completed a certificate program in Object-oriented Software Engineering.

My Interests
I'm keenly interested in using "free and open-source software" (FOSS) internet-based tools to empower learners and address social justice issues. Web-based tools provide a platform for heretofore marginalized groups to self-direct and self-advocate for educational, remedial and social represntation across the socio-eco-political spectrum.

Professional
My background includes special education for at-risk youth. This experience continues to prove invaluable in my dealings w/ adult and remedial learners. Most of my classroom work has been in "informal" education (preparatory, remedial, and workplace)settings. The skills I learned for adapting and making curricula relevant to learners, depending on the needs of each individual, is an approach I try to translate to technology. Therein lies the rub....how do I use technology to reach out with technology?

Initial hardware and software connections are just the beginning

Personal
I enjoy all kinds of sports; however, golf and skiing are at the top of the list. More recently I'm doing more bicycling, paddling, and weight-training in support of the other two.

I've been immersed in technology for a decade and 1/2 and have really "pulled back" in the last couple of years. This imposed hiatus has been good for me in that it will (I hope) force a balance into the future as I negotiate, and navigate within, my "virtual" and "real" worlds.

My Projects
Bullet lists


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Numbered lists
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Mixed lists


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My Sandbox
/My sandbox/

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My Reflection
Wiki syntax is one thing, but the navigation within a wiki brings out the cognitive dissonance in me like few other online experiences. I've always maintained that any learner need get beyond their comfort level in order to truly learn--the irony isn't lost on me =;-)

Feedback & Notes from my WikiNeighbours

 * Great start, Doug. --Nellie Deutsch 20:44, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Nellie: not sure exactly what I'd like to add for content. Still working on that and hoping to make it something valuable, but not sure what that might (should) be. Maybe something to do with mobile, but still pondering--thanks for a great course