I’m Valerie Irvine (pronounced “Irvin”). I am a professor of educational technology in theDepartment of Curriculum and Instruction in the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria. I’m also founder and co-director of the Technology Integration and Evaluation (TIE) Research Lab.

I also consult and keynote on topics relating to educational technology and transformation for learning. I touch on the concepts for both student learning and professional development, such as personalized learning, learner voice and empowerment, connected learning, open education/learning, assessment for learning (digital portfolios), educational change and technology adoption, and social justice issues around access to educational opportunities. I work with both post-secondary and K-12 education and sometimes in corporate or health sectors as well. I have posted some of my content at http://slideshare.net/virvine and you can access some of my keynote/video archives here.

After completing a B.A. in English Literature (UBC), I enrolled in a B.Ed. (UBC) to advance my lifelong journey of learning about learning. After teaching in Coquitlam, I relocated to Edmonton, Alberta, for three years where I was fast-tracked through a Master’s program to complete a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with a specialization in Instructional Technology under the supervision of Dr. Craig Montgomerie. I was awarded a Government of Canada Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) doctoral scholarship to support my dissertation work. I am fortunate to have settled back on the West Coast of Canada in beautiful Victoria and I hope to keep learning about learning and to do my part to help create positive change.

I started teaching open online in 1998 and created my first informal learning network during my practicum in 1996, and I continue to be fascinated by the new affordances that technology continues to provide us as it evolves. That said, the obstacles we have to overcome in implementation and the critical questions we must always ask ourselves as we consider new technologies will most often stay the same. I continue to teach blended, multi-access, and online courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. I am cohort coordinator of the #tiegrad cohort of M.Ed. students, which is the most amazing experience. I highly recommend you follow these TIE teachers. I also supervise M.Ed., M.A., and Ph.D. students, who are focused on making significant research contributions in the field of educational technology. We have our open discourse at the #tielab hashtag and you can find/follow them here.

When I began my position at UVic, I founded the TIE Lab with my co-director, Dr. Allyson Hadwin. We received $750,000 in funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) with additional funding from TELUS, Polycom, SMART, Epson, UVic, and more. Since then I have held grants from various funding agencies, including SSHRC standard grants.