Paul is a Ph.D. candidate within the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Paul spent several years abroad teaching digital media, instructional technology, course design and educational technology at the graduate-level to teacher candidates. With respect to professional development and research, most of Paul’s efforts have centred around online culture and teacher education exchanges with small, but dynamic cohorts of professors from Europe, North America, and Asia. Utilizing a learning management system with embedded communicative technologies, Paul has explored the affordances of social presence through the use of video/web conferencing, discussion forums, audio slideshows, as well as student-created audio/video clips, digital mashups, and wikis.
Upon returning to the University of Toronto, Paul has continued his professional development of implementing online and blended learning approaches in education, while customizing content and learning management systems. To this end, Paul wishes to further explore online learning environments and questions concerning how teacher education may be enhanced, utilizing a combination of collaborative pedagogies and integration of virtual and augmented realities.