For this assignment, I chatted with another person in the class. I love online classes and rarely miss sitting in a classroom. It is nice though to connect with someone that is on a similar journey.
My chat with Eric
Eric and I both work in trades education. Usually, Eric is a maintenance mechanic at Thompson Rivers University but he is taking a year off to upgrade his (already impressive) training and become an instructor for the electrical trade.
Blogging
We both have some experience building websites. Eric is currently taking another course that involves building a WordPress site. It shows and I look forward to witnessing how he fills his blog with posts about the different courses he takes.
Trends in Trades
Eric wrote about the trend to put solar panels on the roofs of our institutions. This led us into an interesting discussion about solar panels in general and the development of the technology. I appreciated his input because we are thinking about adding solar to our house in the future.
TRU’s commitment for becoming carbon neutral impresses me and I hope that this will be included in Okanagan College’s new strategic plan as well.
We also talked about my plans to become involved in the “Be More Than a Bystander” program. It made him reflect on the environments he encountered in his time in the trades and we agreed that there is an urgent need to change the culture in the trades to make them a more inclusive and welcoming place for all. We agreed that this is a process but we are both committed to becoming leaders in this effort.
Thank you for the inspiring conversation, Eric! I look forward to connecting more in the future!
Blog Reviews
Part of the assignment is to review the blogs that others in the class have created. It is fascinating to see the variety of people that are taking this course to become certified instructors.
Frithjof's Blog 