The ePortfolio Theme/Metaphor

 

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step” – Lao-tze, Tao Te Ching

  

To metaphorically present my MET  journey, I chose the metaphor of navigating and sailing on the MET Sea.

 

In general, the journey as a theme is a sort of archetype found in many different kinds and types of literature, from epic classics such as The Odyssey to modern, contemporary classics, such as The Old Man and the Sea. The journey is such an important theme due to the fact that all of us can relate to it, because sooner or later, we find ourselves on a journey, whether physical or metaphorical.

In a more “metaphorical” way the sailing cruise trips are imagined as taking courses, as the integral parts of my MET journey, so the sailing trips demonstrate my gradual, dynamic and connected progress/transformation during the MET program extraordinary learning experience.

 

Sailing literary and as a metaphorical idea conveys the complex process of arts in the ship navigation through the wavy waters (of rivers, lakes, seas and oceans), where the proper and leading edge navigation makes the sailing journey enjoyable, safe, and timely leisure, as well as an extraordinary sightseeing, exploratory and ultimate learning and knowledge building experience.

 

The sea heals the heart, mind, and soul, therefore is a very supportive not only as complex literal, but also as metaphoric and virtual environment for ubiquitous learning I fully experienced during my extraordinary MET journey, so the metaphor of sailing and navigation on the MET Sea represents a very conducive environment for leading edge teaching and learning, exactly the environment I needed to fully focus and excel on my MET learning journey.  

 

Therefore, my MET journey is represented through the navigation, sailing and cruising adventures on the wavy MET sea, with the quest of entering and anchoring in the special coastal ETEC seaports. The ETEC ports dynamically symbolize my active navigational and sailing learning journeys through the various courses offered at the Master of Educational Technology (MET) program, as a thorough and persistent search for the new and existing knowledge and understanding in the world of educational/navigational technology, theorized and practiced on the MET Sea wavy waters of the world class and leading edge research, theory and practice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Organization/Metaphor:

 

My MET learning journey in this ePortfolio will be presented through the metaphorical journey of me as the captain of the small cruiser ship initially sailing on the UBC Ocean and applying/paying the admission fee for entering the MET Sea, for the purpose of being a part of the world class navigational and sailing education and training opportunities, organized by consecutively navigating and sailing into the well chosen 10 ETEC specialized marine ports, registering and paying the port and sailing (tuition & semester) fees for learning sailing and navigation, fuel supply and cargo manipulation, loading, unloading, exchanging, trading, navigating, analyzing, collecting, organizing, saving and transporting various goods (theory/practice/tools/knowledge and experiences) for future use in navigation and sailing tasks.

From the ETEC port to port, the shipload will vary, generally increasing the cargo and total tonnage of the ship with no preset cargo limits. At the end of the MET sea journey, and after the Graduation check point, my quite loaded ship will proudly sail out of the MET sea through the UBC Strait into the UBC Ocean and further, carrying lots of valuable cargo and fuel essential as the achievement of the previous navigational and sailing excelence in general, as well as for successful undertaking of new navigational learning and exciting sailing adventures.

By following this metaphorical journey, I will demonstrate my dynamic transformation during the knowledge building processess in every port, reflect and build meaningful connections between my previous and acquired knowledge and understandings from the MET courses, metaphoricaly presented as a fuel, cargo and navigational and sailing experience, crucial for my future learning journeys and adventures. 

 

The MET Sea Sailing Journey

 

My MET Sea sailing journey is presented as the well planned series of world class navigational training courses hosted in the specific ETEC ports, with the goal of educating, training and assessing the chosen experienced navigators to gradually become world class master navigators, ultimately able to well train other sailors, navigators and crews, navigate well on all kind of waters, under all weather conditions, as well as sail timely and safely by using celestial navigation whole day and night, not losing their course and avoiding any deviations.

For the best and ultimate sailing on the wavy waters of the MET sea (EdTech field) and dynamic carrying and handling its transformative cargo that represents my dynamic information processing storage of the tools and knowledge built, exchanged and acquired during every course, experiences and biases, I, as a life long learner and EdTech professional carry with me and positively update and grow under the impact of new learning (factual weather, winds, streams, currents and waves) philosophies and MET experiences, dynamically build, transform, improve, manage, change (handle/add/subtract/update/load/unload) and meta-cognitively reflect in my brain.

Therefore, as a captain/navigator of the ship (the one who ultimately decides how, where and how fast to sail, what cargo to load/unload, etc., my quest and ultimate sailing goal was to enjoy the MET Sea journey by doing as much as possible to promote and support the timelines, maximize the collaboration, technology utilization, meeting and exceeding the port authorities suggestions and regulations, project and task requirements and timelines for learning the leading edge navigation adn sailing,  for the safest and the most effective navigation and sailing and maximizing the cargo storage acquiring opportunities for handling/processing/building of quality knowledge.

 

The leading edge navigational training for safe sailing and success of every ship navigated on the MET Sea and anchored at each ETEC harbour, is a definite success for the Port authorities, as well for all of us navigators, on our shared MET journey to navigational excellence.

 

The Ship

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My metaphorical MET Sea explorer ship simply named “MILORAD” is a small cruiser vessel designated for carrying smaller cargo and passengers for the purpose of the local sea cruising, sightseeing and port visiting journeys. As a matter of fact, even the small ship is a quite big transportation vessel and a powerful tool to get us places. Needless to say is that the little navigational tools within, the compass, the ship's wheel, the engine, the anchor, the rudder, etc., and other important parts and operational and safety devices of the ship are crucial, and must be handled and maintained well to function perfectly, and not to fail and negatively impact navigation and sailing speed and potentially compromise and endanger the ship navigation and sailing safety causing the course deviations, failures, ship and cargo damages, slowdowns or generally trouble the navigation and sailing processes, ultimately causing jeopardy and dangerous inability to navigate well, steer, orientate, maneuver and sail safely, collide with other ships, hit underwater rocks, damage the hull and finally sink.

 

The Ship Captain/Navigator

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The idea of the ship Captain/Navigator as the one who is ultimately responsible and commands every navigation and sailing movement and maneuver, the MET Sea and ETEC port registrations and all the communications, anchoring, refueling and cargo control, including the inventory, loading and unloading of the ship, is quite responsible, appealing, appropriate and rewarding to me, considering that after the initial UBC Ocean and the MET Sea admission, as well as the specific ETEC port choices and timings, maneuver-tactical moves, or series of moves, may improve/deter or maintain my tactical, operational and strategic navigation situation in a competitive MET sea and the ETEC port environments. Moreover, as the captain I am in charge of supporting and emphasizing my competitiveness, awareness and avoidance of improper and risky moves, procrastination, potential time loss, operational deficiency and unpredicted situations and glitches during the dynamic cargo handling/inventory and assessment times, causing slowdowns in collecting, exchanging, updating, picking up or leaving off the navigational artifacts, therefore negatively impacting the dynamic processes of the ship cargo transformation as quantitative and qualitative loading, unloading, cleanup, exchnage and inventory, definitely shaping my knowledge and transformational experiences.

 

So, I took a role of the captain or navigator of my small “MILORAD” cruiser ship itself. So, each ETEC course was a new destination and a new challenge and opportunity for learning how to navigate and sail well. Most times, I had to navigate and steer the ship, and manipulate/load/unload/inventory the fuel and cargo on my own.

Though sometimes, thanks to the information communication technologies, there were other adjacent and remote MET explorer ship crews, navigators and captains who committed to synchronously/asynchronously scaffold each other, exchanged experiences, navigational ideas, collaborated with me and helped me become more experienced navigator for better handling the navigational theories and practices, as well as the tools for navigation and safe sailing on the harsh MET sea waves. Their valuable help and support was welcome and especially important during the stormy weather and big waves that may have caused the course deviation, so I was able to safely stay on my navigational course and fully meet and exceed the cargo storage growth/manipulation requirements and ultimately avoid unwanted drifting and potential striking of many submerged dangerous rocks that cause the damage of the ship hull and the cargo, as well as irreparable damage of my navigational capacity and captain’s reputation, resulting in delays, increased efforts, as well as long and expensive repairs.

 

So, as the captain, I totally commanded the ship (my learning tools and knowledge building capacity) and navigated the ship sail, while the ship cargo represented the dynamic and transformative category of information and memory processing capacity, including the utilization of the short and the long term memory storage. Out of the 17 MET sea ETEC ports, I chose to register, sail in and anchor in the 10 ETEC ports according to their specialties in offering specific theoretical and practical navigational and sailing knowledge and experience, that was the most significant and essential for decent mastering of my navigational and sailing needs. My choice of the ETEC ports was excellent, and I chose to sail in the best ports on the MET sea, to exchange, store and carry with me lots of valuable fuel/cargo, so I am very proud of that. 

Therefore, each navigational course was hosted in the different ETEC port, and at the each port the cargo has grown significantly either leaving behind unnecessary and picking up more valuable cargo and navigational skills (lots of ultimate theory, knowledge and experience), necessary to support the research and practices, essential for the creation of my decent and unique navigational and sailing artifacts useful for general sailors and other navigators who are looking to go on the same or simmilar navigational and sailing learning journeys!

 

The MET Sea and the ETEC Port sailing safety

 

The UBC Ocean and the connected MET Sea and its ETEC ports were and still are very pirate safe navigation, sailing, anchoring and cruising environments, though there was always a possibility that as the captain and navigator I may lose the focus and easily get distracted by some irresponsible and malicious pirates, navigators and sailors, and not timely studying the navigational and sailing training materials and work on individual and group learning projects and assignments, as well as get distracted and waste my precious time by the improper use of the variety of communication tools, devices and social media technologies maliciously utilized by other “pirate minded” individuals and crews, that may cause the loss of timely navigation, sense of time and gradually cause course deviation, as well as a gradual slack off in maintaining self-discipline, resulting in the procrastination and the loss of output performances of the navigation, sailing, maintenance, the maneuvering ability and the ship sailing speed, loss of timely and efficient cargo handling, timely registration, anchoring, non timely registering for the new ETEC Ports, not paying the ETEC port and the MET sea admission fees, not having the tools ready for sailing, etc.

For the constant navigation and sailing safety and for maintaining of the sailing speed, the potential distractions must have been avoided.   

 

The MET Sea and the ETEC Port sailing support

 

Thanks to the collaborative support during the MET sea navigational training and sailing, and valuable help from the ETEC Port Directors, Administrators and fellow navigators at any of the ETEC ports, the experienced tech troubles that caused a number of hard moments during the navigation and sailing, were much easier to overcome. The most frequent were the cargo handling, processing and storing limitations and frustrations, and from time to time the windy and rough MET Sea and stormy weather, the strict ETEC port regulations, deadlines and time frames,  tidal waves, strong winds, broken tools, unreliable technologies, loading/unloading waiting times, etc. All those troubles and challenges were easier to understand, withstand, troubleshoot, figure out, handle, and finally overcome, definitely getting more experienced and stronger after every navigational challenge. I am glad that all the port authorities were strongly commited to succes of all navigators.

 

As the Hermanson's proverb below says: "A Smooth Sea NEVER made a Skilled Sailor", therefore bigger the challenge, better the learning! During the MET program, on my journey to excellence I experienced challenges, but now I am proud on my learning and knowledge!

 

Moreover, for the sake of leading edge navigation and sailing, safety, professional ethic and success of all, I quite enjoyed constant discovering and finding myself by losing myself in the service to other navigators on our common journey to navigational excellence.

 

The MET Sea Final Navigational Journey

 

I did not want to be the captain that goes down with the ship, so I navigated my ship and sailed as best as I could, timely and strongly repelling any distraction that may have negatively impacted my navigational skills and endangered the safety of sailing. As an experienced and proud Captain of my own ship, I did not allow myself any risk to navigate and sail irresponsibly, therefore put myself, cargo, or the ship in the danger, lose controll and to inevitably call S.O.S., therefore the current sailing and anchoring in ETEC 590 navigational training port represents my navigational success on the journey and a capstone navigational experience, where I have to thoroughly demonstrate, transform and reflect on all important milestones, learned theoretical and practical information, knowledge and decent navigational experience, and look back to compile it and find the best way to share it with the wide audience interested in the navigation and sailing science secrets, quite essential for the leading edge navigation and sailing, not only on the MET sea, but also on all kind of waters.

My MET journey navigational and sailing met-cognitive reflections relative to the each ETEC port navigational experiences and unique artifacts, are summarized and presented in the Captain's log, located at the bottom of the each of the 10 ETEC Port Reflection pages.

 

The ETEC Port Authorities

 

The ETEC Port Director (Harbour Master) is a key navigational learning, sailing and cargo handling authority intended to train, lead, support, promote, assess and enforce the MET Sea and ETEC Port Regulations governing a dynamic learning, navigational training, safe sailing, and timely and proper cargo manipulation, so the marine navigational operations and environment were updated regularly to safely reflect the best and up to date international practices for the MET sea world class navigational and sailing training and assessment. The ETEC Port Director (ETEC Instructor) was constantly in charge of anchoring, mooring of every port entering ship, and fully supporting the sanity, training and assessment of every navigator, organizing, moderating, leading, assessing, analyzing and supporting navigational discussions and project groups, assessing the navigational theoretical and practical sailing projects, for the sake of best application of navigational theories and practices, esssential for good, productive and safe sailing on the wavy waters of the ETEC port.

Tidal predictions, heights and assessment storms were timely published and updated by the ETEC Port Authorities.

 

The ETEC Port Administrator is the MET Sea and ETEC Ports main administrative authority with the mandate to organize, control, promote and timely provide the MET sea and the ETEC port updates, guides, and reports, and was fully responsible for proper registration, control, welcoming and anchoring of all the navigator ships in all the ETEC ports, so the navigators had to seek and obtain the ETEC Port Authority permission to register and pay the port fee (~$1500) for assigned anchorages inside any ETEC port harbour limits. In all the ETEC ports, the navigator ships had to anchor a little way off shore to fully and safely accommodate the bigger number of the ships, sometimes in the most popular ETEC ports there were simultaneously anchored almost 100 various ships, so the proper anchoring and ship to ship, as well as ship to port communication was essential for the most productive navigational training, anchoring and an ultimate sailing safety.

The ships were allowed to sail out of the ETEC Port in good standing toward the next ETEC port, usually after 14 weeks of intensive navigational training, sailing practices and assessments. For further sailing on the MET Sea towards the next approved ETEC port, every navigator had to pay the sailing fee (~$250) and had about 2 weeks to sail out and timely reach and properly anchor in the next ETEC port, check and prepare the ship and other tools and finally get ready for the new 14-week session of exciting navigational training.

 

The ETEC Port Communications

 

To maintain the required level of interconnectivity during the ETEC port sailing, anchoring, and navigational training, practice and assessment, the information communication technologies, such as emails, phones, live video chats, online blogs and forums, etc. were preferred means of remote synchronous and asynchronous communication between the navigators itself and the ETEC port authorities, therefore the communication etiquette had to be respected. Sometimes, the scheduled registration and admission into the ETEC ports and its communication/navigational rules were subject to change depending on weather, tides, storms and other conditions on the UBC Ocean and the MET Sea ETEC Ports.

 

The ETEC Port Regulations

 

The International Regulations for the Prevention of Collisions at Sea (COLREG), for ultimate safety, had to be strictly respected at all times.

Interference with the navigational training and sailing courses of other navigators, bullying or throwing any insults, improper statements, fabricating or depositing of any kind of gossip or ether ballast, rubbish or filthy waters toward the other navigators and the ETEC Port authorities, as well as polluting of the waters of the UBC Ocean and Met Sea and the ETEC harbours virtual learning, communication and navigational spaces of any of the ETEC ports, and its docks, was strictly discouraged, forbidden and ultimately sanctioned.

Any navigator who contravenes any provisions of these Regulations and endangers or compromises navigational learning and sailing safety, commits an offence and may be warned, fined and finally expelled from the ETEC port and forbidden sailing on the MET Sea, and resultantly the UBC Ocean.  To maintain the professional graduate standards in leading edge navigationa and sailing, any under performing activity in navigational and sailing efficiency was pointed to, discouraged and sanctioned.

For the sake of efficiency and safety, the timely approvals of the ETEC Port Authorities were required for all the requests and changes in the navigation and sailing educational and training practices on the MET sea, the ETEC port waters, docks and related facilities.

 

My dear readers! Let’s go all aboard and get ready for a 10 port navigational cruise of ultimate knowledge!  

 

You will surely enjoy being passengers on my cruiser ship, and quite avid explorers of my MET ePortfolio! 

 

A Smooth Sea NEVER made a Skilled Sailor!
John George Hermanson - English Proverb

 

BON VOYAGE!