melaniemcbride.net

Bio Melanie McBride is a Toronto-based early adopter, educator and digital culture specialist with a focus on critical pedagogies of informal learning and play. She is currently researching informal learning and play in digitally-mediated social environments and affinity spaces as a Research Assistant at Ryerson University's Experiential Design and Gaming Environments (EDGE) lab and MA candidate at York University's joint program in Communication and Culture. Melanie is also at work on a book about the 'hidden' curriculum of emergent learning (September 2012). She has taught secondary (high school), post-secondary, industry, alternative, at-risk and adult education. When she isn't writing and researching she can be found flooding things in Minecraft. Full Bio: Interactive New Media Prior to becoming a teacher, Melanie was an active participant in online life and culture and worked for over a decade as an interactive new media storyteller. Her research, writing and ideas have contributed to award-winning e-learning and interactive new and trans-media projects with government, national media and educational clients including: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Trapeze Media, Phantom Compass, Learning Agents, Mystus Exhibits and distinguished museum clients in North America, Europe and the Middle East. Melanie's interactive histories for the CBC Archives project have repurposed by teachers for use in Canadian classrooms and are cited as primary sources in histori.ca and wikipedia. Melanie has written about technology and culture for Mindjack Magazine, Howard Rheingold’s Smartmobs and her blog at melaniemcbride.net. Her ideas and blog posts are frequently cited by leading technologists, educators, educational press and included many course syllabi and presentations. Education and Teaching Melanie holds a Specialist degree (BA Hons) in English Literature from University of Toronto and an Intermediate/Secondary teaching degree (B.Ed) from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. Melanie has also attended Ryerson University for media studies and received a post-graduate certificate in online writing and information design at The Centre for Creative Communications, Centennial College. Melanie will begin an MA in York/Ryerson University's joint graduate program in Communication and Culture in 2012. From 2005 to 2009, Melanie designed and taught post-graduate professional courses in interactive writing, social and participatory media and online publishing as a part-time faculty member at Centennial College’s Centre for Creative Communications. In 2009, Melanie joined the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) as an Intermediate/Secondary Media Arts teacher working with at-risk youth aged 18-20. Speaking and consulting As a speaker, Melanie has appeared at The National Inner City Educators conference, The Canadian Association of Communicators in Education (CACE), Trillium Lakelands School Board, Magazines Canada’s Web Weekend series, The Atlantic Magazines Association conference and various industry and PD workshops. As a consultant, Melanie has provided social and participatory content and learning strategies for education, online publishing, advocacy and entertainment media. Research Interests Social justice, situated informal learning, gaming/game culture, MMOs and multiplayer games, virtual and persistent worlds, transmedia, remix and maker culture, Open technology, Open education, critical pedagogy, critical theory, hidden and null curriculum, privacy

Contact

For speaking, consulting or media inquiries please use the contact form or email at:  mcbride dot melanie at gmail dot com Connect: