Meet BJ Eib at Royal Roads

Submitted by Brent McIntosh at NIC
To begin with, please tell us a bit about where you work and what you do.
I am the Manager Teaching and Learning Support in the Centre for Teaching and Educational Technology (CTET) at Royal Roads University.  I lead a team of Instructional Designers who engage in course and learning design, support faculty Moodle users and provide faculty development opportunities.
How long have you been involved in teaching and learning and educational technology?  

Let’s just say 30 plus years.  My first experiences combining teaching, learning and technology involved bringing a Radio Shack TRS 80 into a fifth grade classroom.  Parent volunteers entered games, such as Hangman, written in BASIC into tape storage for the kids to play.  I learned BASIC by trouble shooting lines of code; dot matrix printers in those days made it difficult to figure out whether a symbol was a semi colon or colon, etc.  There were plenty of opportunities for error.  A little later I became the Computer/Technology coordinator for a school system in Indiana.
What is one thing you really love about the work you do? 
Problem solving.  I especially like working with instructors on teaching and technology problems, bouncing ideas back and forth and arriving at creative solutions.
How long have you been an ETUG member?
This is kind of a hard question.  I sort of slid into ETUG, at least 5 years ago but probably longer.
What do you like best about this community and its activities?
The two conferences each year.  They are short, practical and offer good variety.  The conferences are also terrific networking opportunities.  I have enjoyed the enthusiasm and generous mutual support provided by ETUG members, often over long time spans between initial conversations and when I actually have the time to try whatever we talked about.   I also value the T.E.L.L. sessions, although it is often difficult to schedule the time to attend.  Recording and broadcasting ETUG events has been valuable for my own review and to direct non ETUG members to when there is something of value for them.  BCcampus support for ETUG helps make the events possible and provides solid support for our activities.  This is a very welcoming group.
Do you have a favourite ETUG memory?
I think it has to be the one day workshop at Kwantlen a couple of years ago– the one with the meditation.  The sight of all the well-educated, technology focused people with their heads down, butts up, drawing on the floor will always stick with me. And who doesn’t enjoy the pub nights?
Do you have any interests or hobbies you don’t mind sharing with the ETUG world?
I have two active hobbies at the moment. I enjoy gardening although the weather hasn’t been all that cooperative lately.  My partner, some of our neighbours and I are also taking marimba lessons.  We have vowed not to take it too seriously and are having a great deal of fun learning and playing.