Allow myself to introduce…myself…
Hello.
My name is Joel MacDonald and I am an E-Learning Instructional Designer with the E-Learning Office at UPEI. I am an Islander, born and raised. I grew up in Charlottetown in the 70’s and 80’s. Back when the Garden City Dairy had the best orange pineapple ice cream in town.
When I graduated from high school, much to the annoyance of my band teacher, I decided to train as a sport coach. A soccer coach to be exact. I accrued sport science and education degrees at UNB and then a master’s degree in coaching at UBC. Working for soccer has taken me all over Canada. Over the years, I added training in adult education, facilitation and instructional design to my repertoire and transitioned from just coaching soccer players to primarily coaching coaches.
Along the way, I’ve also taught in the K-12 grades as well as instructed college courses. When I got tired of “working for the man” I started my own consulting company focused on training and development. Running your own business is both awesome and scary, by the way. Oh yeah, I’ve trained as a chef and cooked professionally for five years as well. I also worked as a farmer and had my own market garden. And I’ve trained and worked as a chocolatier too. So I’ve been around and done a few things.
But I have always loved helping people learn and now that particular journey has taken me back here to PEI. I look forward to doing my part to help improve the instructional experience at UPEI. Most days you’ll find me wrestling with Moodle. I’m not sure who’s winning yet. I’m also preparing for the moment when I can introduce my own instructional curiosity on faculty and staff — affective learning. The ability to learn is one thing. The willingness to learn is a very different thing altogether — a far more important thing too.
When I’m not at UPEI, you can find me in Cornwall getting a house ready for the arrival of my wife and two young sons from Ontario. Please drop by the E-Learning Office to say hello or to talk about all things teaching and learning. You can find me in the Robertson Library, Room 302–03.
