About Me
Hey everyone! My name is Josh, I am a fifth-year student here at the University of Victoria in my final 
semester, aiming to earn my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science by the end of this year. I’ve had the (dis)pleasure of navigating through university courses from the beginning of COVID through to where we are today. I half-jokingly say displeasure only because of how rough things were during times of uncertainty, just because of the severity and abruptness of the situation that professors or students could not prepare for.
A bit more about my educational journey and how I got here. I attended a smaller high school with only 110 students in my graduating class in 2020. I took the IT course as my elective option every year from grade 9 through 12, in my last year doing an AP CS course in which I obtained a course credit at the university level for our intro CSC course. I always saw myself going into higher education to obtain a bachelor’s, and because of my aptitude and how much I enjoyed computer science, that’s the area in which I pursued my degree. A lot of people nowadays seem to get into CS degrees for the money, and I’m glad I got into it because of my love for coding and general enjoyment and how easy I found it to pick up. Although I would be lying if I said the money wasn’t a nice addition as well!
I’ve learned through the 4 co-ops that I’ve completed that I really enjoy continuous learning and exploration. I think its especially critical in the tech field where there are always so many new technologies to stay ontop of. I think keeping up with the latest security flaws, updates, technologies, languages and more is a great way to keep engaged with my work and always question if things are able to be done better. Because of this, I plan to just pursue a full-time career once I obtain my bachelor’s. I considered pursuing a master’s, but I don’t think it will do much for me at this point in my career and for what I’m aiming to do. I do see myself pursuing this in the future, but it would have to be to advance my career for something like the machine learning or artificial intelligence space, as well as be funded by my work, and I’d like the ability to do it alongside my work as well.
Distributed Education and Open Education
This term is fairly new to me, but the concepts are familiar to my past experiences in both university and high school. I was lucky enough to have some course offerings in high school in which I was given the flexibility to take on new projects and learnings on my own time, given a unique offering of a tech course I was taking. This was different from my typical learning methodology back then with the teacher up front and all students learning face to face. Instead, I received support and resources from my instructor to take on this alternative method of learning which I was able to learn lots from.
With the rise of online resources and being in a tech-focused course, I was able to see firsthand the benefits of this concept that educational resources should be freely available for all. I wasn’t hindered by associated costs for courses or textbooks I used to research further into my project, and as a student who was only working part-time, it enabled me to learn and grow much quicker as a student versus being limited in a class setting.
Modes of Learning
With COVID, I was able to go through and explore different course offerings. I see a great benefit to face-to-face learning, and prefer it for many courses in which some concepts are brought up that need clarification or discussion. I enjoy online asynchronous learning with the benefits it has to give individuals better control over their daily schedules and manage things on their own time. I prefer and have had the best success with blended offerings, in which main course concepts were taught face-to-face, and online resources were provided to supplement learning.
Digital Literacy and Identity
These two concepts go hand in hand. With digital literacy, it is important to both recognize and take advantage of technology in ways that we can benefit ourselves, whether that be as a more effective learning tool, a way to connect us with others or saving us time and money. With the
rise of social media and the intersection of work and technology, it is important to also recognize your place in the online world and how you convey yourself online, just as you do in the real world.
It is important to have a strong grasp of these concepts, as it helps individuals be effective at gaining the most from their open and distributed learning environments. As a learner, understanding how to interact and evaluate information presented to me through blog posts, videos, and podcasts, I put myself in the best position to get the most from the learnings.
In my unique experience, I have had the privilege of connecting with other like-minded individuals because of the work I’ve put out online. Being in the tech field, lots of what I work on in a professional sense is available for recruiters or fellow students to see. Putting my best foot forward online allows me to get ahead in things like job interviews, connecting with recruiters, or meeting smart individuals to work on projects with.
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