Your portfolio should begin with a contextual statement – the kind of thing you might write in a cover letter for a job application. It should provide a concise biography, outlining your career history and current role(s), highlighting briefly the operational context in which you work or have worked, and reflecting on why you are submitting your portfolio for CMALT and how this relates to your future career aspirations. This section is not assessed, but will be very helpful for the assessors as they approach the rest of your portfolio. (From CMALT Guidelines for Candidates).

 

Some details about me:

Name:                                    Julie Lindsay

Current position:                  Associate Director, Digital Learning Innovation

Current employer:                University of Southern Queensland, Australia

Time in current position:      Joined May, 2020

Qualifications:                      BA (Hons), GradDip (Education), GradDip (Computer                Education), MA (Music), MA (Educational Technology Leadership), PhD

Statement (Contextual)

I have an extensive and diverse 30+-year career in education, am digitally fluent, globally connected and active and have adapted emerging technologies for use within learning environments to support enhanced student outcomes. My passion is for teaching and learning that focuses on the student, in conjunction particularly with online learning modes, connected learning and online global collaboration. In higher education I foster student engagement that goes beyond the ‘lecture’. Learning is social, interactive and often collaborative therefore strategies for learner-learner, learner-content, and learner-community engagement are imperative. I have designed and customized online and in-person professional learning with a focus on digital and online technologies through workshops, presentations and online courses, thereby influencing peers to adopt new tools and pedagogies. I understand the current higher education context whereby more traditional teaching and learning modes now need to shift to accommodate new approaches to student engagement, retention and success. This difficult transition period is impacting across all university sectors and requires ongoing communication, support and collaborative learning design. It also requires a deeper understanding on the part of the academic developer as to pedagogical applications: something that comes experientially from ‘doing’, not just from ‘telling’.

In 2019 I completed a PhD (University of Southern Queensland), ‘Online global collaborative educators and pedagogical change’. Research was around theoretical frameworks of constructivism, constructionism, connected learning and connectivism, community of inquiry and community of practice, collaborativism, online learning and global collaboration, as well as heutagogy and self-determined learning. My work for the past 20+ years has been across borders – beyond the school, beyond the university, while continuing to foster better interdisciplinary working relationships internal to the institution. Previously I completed an MA in Educational Technology Leadership (George Washington University) that covered broad concepts and themes for teaching and learning at all education levels through the use of digital and online technologies including instructional design, web and user interface development, curriculum integration, policy creation, and pedagogical applications. My qualifications are coupled with extensive experience in online learning, technology integration, learning design, (online and in-person subjects and courses), and design and implementation of teacher professional learning. 

My interest in educational technology started in the 1980’s through music technology when I taught at the K-12 level and introduced sequencing, computer-based composition and electronic performance. In the 1990’s when the Internet became available in the classroom my fascination with connecting and collaborating beyond the classroom walls led to a passion for online global collaborative learning. For 15 years I worked outside of Australia in international schools (Zambia, Kuwait, Bangladesh, Qatar, China), providing leadership for 1:1 and online learning modes.

Recent ThinkPieces created using Adobe Spark.

Leading for pedagogical change in an online learning environment

There’s a whole world out there to connect, collaborate and learn with

 

Why am I completing the CMALT accreditation? 

Completing my PhD recently and joining USQ in the area of digital learning innovation has inspired me to review and reflect on my career and consider what I really want to achieve in the next stage. My current role is a leadership position and I have a team of 20+ who support the entire university with digital audio, video, graphical and pedagogical innovations for online learning. I would like to consolidate my understanding of learning and teaching and continue to develop my authority in online and digital learning. I am hoping completing CMALT will inspire me to reflect and share, something I have neglected in recent years due to PhD studies.

How does this relate to my future career? 

I am recognized as an online learning and pedagogical thought leader in and beyond Australia and many colleagues regard me as a mentor for new and innovative approaches. I am very active professionally online (for example, 5000+ LinkedIn followers and 15000+ Twitter followers) and connect with colleagues, peers, and experts, to share, contribute and collaborate. My profile as an emerging researcher is growing and current peer-reviewed articles related to connected learning beyond the classroom and moving from local to global modes as well as online global collaboration and pedagogical practices are listed on my CV. I am writing papers on findings from my PhD research that include: Specific strategies for educators to overcome barriers and focus on enablers for forging new pedagogies in online collaborative learning (utilising emerging digital technologies); The Global Collaborator Mindset attributes of connection, openness, autonomy and innovation, revealing ongoing change and flexibility in approaches to learning and teaching; and, A new model of online learning (Online Global Collaborative Learning (OGCL) Framework) that has implications for learning design in teacher education and higher education. 

My career in higher education is relatively short (8 years), with Adjunct and other contractual work at Charles Sturt University leading to my current position at USQ. My motivation to complete CMALT relates to my future career in higher education and how I can continue to grow as a leader in the areas of educational technology, innovation, online learning and global collaborative learning.

Academic profile: orcid.org/0000-0002-6220-8785
Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Julie_Lindsay2
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julieannelindsay/
Twitter: @julielindsay
Blog ‘The Global Educator’: http://www.julielindsay.net
Website: https://learningconfluence.com/
Online bio and links to social media: http://about.me/julielindsay

 

Select publications

• Lindsay, J. (2017). Connecting beyond the classroom - Move from local to global learning modes. Scan: The Journal for Educators 36(2), pp. 27-38. Retrieved from: https://tinyurl.com/scan-Lindsay-2017 (peer-reviewed)
• Lindsay, J. (2016). Commentary: We Are a Global Community: What if We Collaborated? Learninglandscapes, 10(1), 37-46.
• Lindsay, J. (2016). The global educator: Leveraging technology for collaborative learning & teaching. Eugene, Oregon/Arlington, VA: International Society for Technology in Education.
• Lindsay, J., & Davis, V. (2012). Flattening classrooms, engaging minds: Move to global collaboration one step at a time. New York: Allyn and Bacon.