A Life Wide Journey- Helen DeWaard's P3

Helen DeWaard teaches digital and media literacy at the Faculty of Education at Lakehead University in Orillia. She has completed a Masters of Educational Technology from the University of British Columbia and a Masters of Education from the University of Toronto, OISE. Her passion for teaching and learning with technology stretches back through her career as an elementary school teacher, special education resource teacher and school leader. Her work with digital storytelling, critical digital literacy and teaching with technology connects to global contexts that include digital badges, Virtually Connecting and ISTE Inclusive Learning networks. Helen is serving as an Open Education Fellow with eCampus Ontario as she engages with others in open teaching and learning.

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Helen embodies open teaching and learning. When we recorded, she had just returned from The Creative Commons Global Summit where there were 67 different countries represented. Each attendee was interviewed for a recording titled The Humans of the Commons, and she expressed the power of capturing all of those perspectives in one place. Helen was actually in between conferences, as she would depart for the Open Education Consortium OEGlobal Conference in Delft, The Netherlands soon after the show. On her website, Helen describes herself as an educator, leader, designer of digital learning spaces and events, teacher, and life-wide learner. When asked about the final descriptor, she referred to the work of Helen Barrett around e-Portfolios. Dewaard made the essential point that our learning portfolios don’t end when we leave school, “We continue to learn throughout our lifetimes, and we still collect and gather the artifacts of everything that’s important to us.” Along with our portfolios of life, Helen’s learning is as wide as the world can make it.

"Humans of the Commons at the Creative Commons Global Summit 2018" flickr photo by Sebastiaan ter Burg https://flickr.com/photos/ter-burg/26576590337 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license

When asked about preparing for her P3, Helen said that it was surprisingly challenging. “It's really hard to focus in on three [songs] that are representative of moments in time in a life long experience with music.” She made a point about the show being a unique and interesting experience. Helen also said that the The Personal Playlist Podcast is a platform for pause that allow guests to gain perspective on their life and the role of music in narrating it. She shared, “I really appreciate the opportunity to do this and the opportunity you give people to stop and reflect about what their doing and what place music plays in what they're’ doing.”

Helen selected her nostalgic song as a reminder of growing up and her parents. “This particular song, first of all, has that nostalgia for all the moments that I've celebrated with all my family, particularly my mom and my dad- deeply spiritual in terms of the messaging.” This song and singer tied her to her home roots when she first left home. She would listen to this artist's music for connection to the feeling of home and for inspiration. This song brings back the sentiment of “not being lost but being found, and being found grounded in something…” bigger than herself or whatever she is doing. It also reminds Helen of summer visits to shrines. “It brings back all those memories of Latin Masses...Christmas Midnight Masses, those moments of calm reflection... those moments of song...” She described her father as a quiet man who didn't usually sing except to this song. She goes further to paint a picture of her mother sitting away from her father except during the prayer.“ When this song plays, I feel the two of them sitting beside each other.” Helen described the singer's voice as hauntingly beautiful and says that it gives her goosebumps. With Latin being the tie between her parents and their faith, and something from which the Catholic Church diverged for a while, this version is particularly special. Here is Ave Maria sung by Charlotte Church:

Helen’s identity song has many layers. It comes from an album that remains one of the best selling of all time. The band was going through a lot, and this song represents a lot for our guest. When she told her husband of her song choice, he affirmed her selection saying that it described her so well saying: “It's always the next adventure, it’s always the next thing to try, and it’s always looking for what comes next.” This band was actually her first live concert, a gift from her husband, and it was a trip to the ‘big city’ to see 25,000 people in the stadium. Helen connect deeply to the song in terms of her experiences with it but also in terms of the lyrics. She commented, “I never dwell on the negative events of the past but always look for the lessons that I’ve learned from them to look towards the future.” The original title of this band's album was “Yesterday's Gone” taken from this song. There is a line in the song that really resonates with Helen and gets her thinking about all the students that needed somebody to listen to them and bring a smile to their day. The lyrics go, “ All I want is to see you smile, even for a little while.” Here is Don’t Stop by Fleetwood Mac:

Neil Diamond wrote and recorded Helen’s pick-me-up song. It was recorded by Smash Mouth for the movie Shrek and sung by Eddie Murphy's character, Donkey, but the version Helen chose is the one that gives her that “motivational upbeat bounce”. This song keeps her going because, for her, it’s a metaphor. “The song is about education and my work as a teacher, and it’s every student and every individual that I may have worked with, taught or may yet teach. It’s about the process.” As a die-hard believer in what she does, this song lifts her up every time she faces a challenge, disappointment, doubt or pain. “This one always pulls me back from the brink.” Here is I’m a Believer by the Monkeys:

The one song that Helen said was missing from her playlist described her life while her children were growing up. This Rob Zombie song Two-Lane Blacktop, introduced to her by her son It reflected a time in her life when she was constantly in the car "rolling blacktop", taking her children to hockey and karate and visiting distant family members. Many parents can relate to that feeling of constantly being on the drive to or from something.

Helen's every day is “a very mixed bag of tricks.” From marking, to contacting students, to doing research or reading, to creating course content, Helen is always on a journey. She is working a lot on open education and what that means in higher education as well as the K-12 educational space. Using media and digital literacies along with blogging and social media, teachers are “...opening the educational spaces so that others can see. It’s almost like a window into what they’re doing with their students, and it’s an exciting time to be, but there are barriers, issues and concerns...all those digital literacies that come into play.” You can learn more about Helen and her work on her website. Helen actively tweets about education related topics and blogs at Five Flames for Learning.