User:Richardnz

Richard's Page
VideoIntroRichardNZ

=Professional Background= Started life as a geologist and geophysicist and from there, during a bust in the oil industry moved into mathematical modelling of fluidized bed combustion and other research for a few years. Eventually became a teacher in an international school and have worked in Portugal, Singapore, New Zealand and China.

I have worked for many years as an examiner for the International Baccaluareate Organisation.

More recently I have been an eLearning Manager and have developed Moodle courses for Te Wananga o Aotearoa, Dulwich College Beijing and Moodle workshops for the IBO. I have also developed online workshops as a complement to traditional f2f events (blended learning).

This year I completed a 3 1/2 year contract with the Southport School, Queensland, Australia as elearning Coordinator developing more Moodle resources and other initiatives.

Currently working as a consultant in New Zealand and developing Moodle and other Open Source resources at Moodle NZ Net. Also writing and blogging at RichardNZ Net

See this page for further details.

=Education=
 * B Sc Geology, London, 1974
 * M Sc Marine Earth Science, London, 1978
 * MA Education (Educational Management), Bath, UK, 1996
 * Post-grad certificate Online Education, USQ, Australia, 2002

In all fairness I have to advise against taking any course of study with USQ. Having completed the above certificate, and looking for credit for a Master's Degree from the same institute I was told (in 2010) "Your certificate is too old to be worth any credit with us" - nice one.

=My Interests= Very interested in the potential of online communities of practice from a professional perspective. Also enjoy the social aspects of the web - staying in touch with my many friends and acquaintances around the world.

For exercise I enjoy tennis and volleyball.

I love to travel - extensively in New Zealand but also been around the world a few times too.

I still read books :-) (and collect old ones about early NZ History too)

=Professional=

Please see my Twitter page for more information and, if you like, follow me.



=Personal= I am a trustee of the local branch of Tabitha Cambodia, an organisation helping the poorest of the poor there with microloans, well digging, house building and craft sales. Tens of thousands of Cambodians have graduated the programme to self sufficiency.

More details at our New Zealand website.

=Photos= Photo of the instant (changed infrequently).



=My Projects=

Current: Working on a book entitled Moodle, Schools and Change with Dr Jill Margerison. To be published inexpensively by Smashwords.

Wiki Educator (contract assignment): A Java Programming unit for Middle/High School students using the Open Source IDE BlueJ.

Having completed the above project I intend to work on an OER for teaching OOP using Java and the open source IDE BlueJ. Work has begun at Java home.

=My Publications= /publications/

=My Sandbox= /My sandbox/

=My Booklist= /My booklist/

=My Reflection= My experiences with WikiEducator have been very encouraging and positive. It's really great to see so many educators from so many different countries and backgrounds collaborating here - it gives me great hope for the future. Isn't the future what all educators think about most of the time? After all it is right there in front of us every day of school or college.

It has been a privilege to participate in the latest workshop as a facilitator.

= Feedback &amp; Notes from my WikiNeighbours =