Hi there! I’m Emily Strong. I work in academic technology at Emmanuel College in Boston, and I’ve been in this field for about seven years now, beginning with a work study job back in college.

Once upon a time I took a graduate course in ed tech. It was frustrating. The technologies covered were five to ten years out of date. (And we spent a week on listservs. Seriously.)

So when I first heard about #etmooc, I was skeptical. And then I actually looked into it. Found out that it has a connectivist approach similar to that used in DS106. Saw the brainstorm of topics. Saw the people who were going to be involved in the course. And I became excited.

Beyond being excited for #etmooc, what should you know about me? Well…

Last semester I participated in DS106 as an open participant (and I still need to finish my final project…). The course was a lot of fun, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to improve their multimedia skills and become disciplined in their creativity (Some people might say that creativity can’t be disciplined. I say that’s because they haven’t tried yet.) I made some really cool pieces, as well as a few that make me wonder what I was thinking. Here are a couple of my favorites:

I’m in the process of applying to grad school (eek!).

I like gaming. I’m fascinated by the ways people have found to integrate games into courses, from individual activities to entire courses designed as RPGs.

I play around in photoshop a lot. Like a lot a lot. The header for this site was created from a picture of pinecones.

And I frequently use images and clips of celebrities in my media projects. Videos. Posters. Powerpoints. Pretty much any visual thing I create.