SHULA KLINGER
Ph.D.

Introducing Shula

Originally from the UK, Shula is now entering her fourth year of her Ph.D. program in educational technology. Her thesis examines the potential of internet based forums as places where education policy can be published, debated and re-formulated. This term she is also the managing editor of the website you are reading and will be teaching EDUC490 (“The Digital Age”) for the UBC Teacher Education Program. She also plays the flute, so if you are an incoming student with musical talents, be sure to let her know and she’ll make sure you have a chance to flaunt them!

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR: PIECING TOGETHER A "DIGITAL QUILT"

Community building may be a catchphrase in education but working on this site has proved to me that there is real substance to it. In writing the section about the department quilt (Cafe/Quilting Bee), I read about the role of quilt-making in women's groups in North America... and realised it was time to look around at the work we were doing here.

In order to fill these pages, I have spent time in conversation with my colleagues, asking questions which might help us to furnish the site. These have been vastly more detailed than the usual rush of hallway greetings. We may not have been physically piecing together fabric squares from our clothing, but in hearing students talk about their work, I've been reminded how finely our studies are woven into the fabric of our lives. When I haven't been brandishing a camera or a notebook, it's been fascinating to learn about the finer points of the group's academic plans and achievements. In creating this site we wanted to do more than simply describe the programs and policies affecting graduate students. So how do you go about creating an online document which genuinely conveys the ambiance of your work environment?

We invited many different kinds of contributions from the students. Some accounts are in the third person, others in the first; occasional news is presented as a postcard, while two students have authored longer, more personal reflections on their professional and academic histories. We've also included accounts of the many student-led, extra-curricular activities at the Centre, too. These include regular events like the Brown Bag Lunches, the Tuesday Cafés and the Rough Writers Group. They also include exceptional events such as the African Celebration and the Quilting Bee. Combined, these events offer students many opportunities for both scholarly and social conversation, disguising the invisible transition between being a new student and an active contributor to the academic community.

So even if you are only visiting for a few minutes from a computer room, your living room, an internet café or your own classroom, I hope these accounts have conveyed something of our daily work. Our main goal has been to develop a site that is a hospitable welcome for prospective students and visiting scholars. We take our hospitality seriously, so do let us know if there is any way we can make the site more user friendly.

Shula Klinger,
Ph.D.