User:Vtaylor

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Contact-new.svg Valerie Taylor
ValerieTaylor.jpg
Employer:DeAnza College, Cupertino, CA
Occupation:Encouraging all kids to learn about the world through Engineering. Promoting open education resources, personal learning networks and educator collaboration.
Certificate blue.svg This user was certified a WikiArtisan by victor.mensah.
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This user is an elected member of the WikiEducator Community Council.



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You only need one person to believe in you to succeed. It's a lot easier if that person is you.

If in doubt, be helpful - ...


life is too short not to do something that matters -- gapingvoid

There is no real way to fail a project in which “learning” is the end-goal.


Albert Einstein once said “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”

“Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.” —Japanese proverb

"It's kind of fun to do the impossible" --Walt Disney

On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Gardening is way of showing that you believe in tomorrow

2018.5 * glxdev * Learning networks math * e4k words e4k vocab kiddle khan xref * Watson * 100 words * MarVyn Askarisa

2018.4 * book * iLearn * PBL school * burns * PBL math * Curiosity discover explore * Project-Based Learning * typing

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. -- Anais Nin

2018.3 * xreality * maker 3d thinking ipads * FIRST orlando * k-8 * Flying Companions * k-12 flying * e4k * quilting


A loved activity is play

wikispaces close out scheduled for june 2018 * backup MediaWiki format * byx * ll * e4k * e4k wiki * byxbee

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. --Marget Mead

2018.2 * bgc * xreality * typing * cis89a spring 2018 * e4k * k-8 * Science6 * e3

  • g2 maker * 3d thinking 2 6 special * g2 ipads * orlando


“productive adult skills” - term “soft skills” implies they’re easy to learn and teach

You are what you celebrate - make mag

  • 2017.11

Play is important - for flow. The 4 Ps of play - passion; peers; projects; play.

  • 2017.8 glx curiosity notice listen question ewb living play yoga platetes pickleball kayak e4k theater moas
  • SWENextEd * swenexted


Open learning resources


Collection and archive

“It happened. Now suck it up and figure out what’s next.” --Anne Edmonson
Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart. Anne, you are one of those special people.

“If I were a fairy godmother, my gift to every child would be curiosity.”

Risk - moving from a comfortable "average" in pursuit of an unknown better. --George Couros

  • Habits of Happy People * * teach others * learn new skills * stay optimistic * show gratitude * pay it forward * no entitlement * laugh more

Some of our quietest students have the loudest minds. We have to ensure we are providing varied outlets for their voices to be heard.


students should have the ability to pick the end-user for their product or process. Good design is based on empathy and addressing someone’s needs. Student choice leads to student engagement. Easy Entry, Sky High, and a Mile Wide


"the core principle and requirement of a fulfilled human being is the ability to inquire and create constructively, independently, without external controls." -- Downes quoting Chomsky quoting Humboldt

Remember, many SME (and many teachers, for that matter) are not self-learners. Often, you'll have to lead them through the process (on the bright side, their children will pick it up much more quickly. --oldaily

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away"

MOOCs, Engineering, Teaching Engineering - K-8

2015.01 - iPads for K-8 - teaching, learning, reviews, resources, Reading * bst apps list learning projects, Inquiry learning, Wellness, kids site design, Engineering


The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. --Mark Twain

  • 2014.12 - cis89a, hour of code, visualization, girls - mailer, techkids, ipads, byo..., woaww - 6mar2015, toy parade, eaa, mdc, swe, fll, nsb bsf 2015

"The quest for asking elegantly simple questions...the very best journey that our life offers" - Trudy Hall

To enable a kid to learn without a teacher is the best gift a teacher can give a student. [1]

“I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening.” ~ Larry King

“The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.” ~ Ralph G. Nichols

The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you. --B. B. King

Don't limit a child to your own learning for he was born in another time. --Rabindranath Tagore

Advocating universal access to science and engineering. Promoting open education resources, personal learning networks and educator collaboration. Discovering open learning communities, networks and new ideas. "May you live in interesting times."
For Gen-B2 (B squared aka Baby Boomers), life has been pretty amazing - full of surprises, change, prosperity and innovation. Technology, and the internet in particular play a big part in this story. They provide the opportunity to contribute to global understanding and application of science and engineering to benefit all. Image that - I'm part of the community sharing information and access to learning with anyone anywhere in the world. But wait, there's more...

if we are ever to civilize this world and live in greater peace and harmony, it can only be done by educating every single child to the limit of their capacity. --Edward Lukacs

Expect creative solutions, not compromise, aligned with the vision that benefit the organization as a whole. [2]

the environment that succeeds supports student autonomy, mastery, and purpose - Daniel Pink's three elements

An engineer starts with a societal need. Absent a societal need, an engineer has nothing to do. [3]

learning is... connection, cooperation, open, mobile, global, imagination, inspiration, discovery, self-serve * zest, grit, self-control, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism and curiosity

Excellence is Caring more than others think is wise; Risking more than others think is safe; Dreaming more than others think is practical. Expecting more than others think is possible. --Winston Churchill

The key ingredients for deep creative learning are real freedom and real responsibility. Freedom allows for exploration and experimentation, while responsibility insures that both will be pursued with rigor. Interest and commitment are the prerequisites for the responsible use of freedom. There is no way that we know of to force people to be interested and committed. That must be a precondition. --Harrison Owen


No one wants to be sold; they want to be empowered to buy.

Those who cannot claim computers as their own tool for exploring the world never grasp the power of technology ~ via OLDaily


Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think ~ Christopher Robin to Winnie the Pooh (A.A. Milne)


Learning is the free and open-source version of education It's about individuals connecting to knowledge and pursuing their passions among peers and guides with fewer constraints--time, place, cash, or otherwise. --[4]


Stay hungry. Stay foolish. --Steve Jobs (1955-2011) quoting Whole Earth Catalog


The core skill of innovators is error recovery, not failure avoidance. --Randy Nelson, President of Pixar University.


It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so. --frequently attributed to Mark Twain, and often to Will Rogers, Satchel Paige, Artemus Ward, as well as others


education has been subjected to the tyranny of the Right Answer, even though the most important questions don't have right answers. - Who am I? Why should you believe me? Is this real? What is the most important thing that we should do next? --Edward Mokurai Cherlin


You are the same today as you will be in five years except for two things, the people you meet and the books you read. --?


The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. --Mark Twain


Projects and courses


Education is not filling a bucket but lighting a fire... William B. Yeats, poet


Hammer and spanner.svg This user is a Learning Designer who assists with the instructional design of free content projects.






Ongoing Projects

Only the curious will learn and only the resolute will overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient.
.. Edmund S. Wilson (1895-1972) U.S. author, literary and social critic.

Education is not filling a bucket but lighting a fire.
.. William B. Yeats, poet

Education: Being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. It's knowing where to go to find out what you need to know; and it's knowing how to use the information once you get it.
.. William Feather

  • monobook.js - javascript for my projects link - messes up relative addressing --Vtaylor 13:34, 11 March 2009 (UTC)
  • ... design social working approach based on users' "technoprofile" - the way people behave in social networking: creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators, inactives.
  • self-directed learning, threshold concepts, experiential learning, Inquiry education Students are encouraged to ask questions which are meaningful to them, and which do not necessarily have easy answers; teachers are encouraged to avoid giving answers when this is possible, and in any case to avoid giving direct answers in favor of asking more questions. - still have teachers and learners, problem-based, project-based


Open learning

  • clouds, trusted collections of open content, OCW, OER - more than just lists of repositories


Ideas and random thoughts

  • learner-centered design - Are students able to agree [on] some or all of their learning goals in negotiation with teaching staff? Do students have any choice in terms of either: what they learn, the particular resources they will study and / or the learning activities they will engage in?
  • "digital brownies" - What can I do? What do you want from me? - invitation to collaborate, virtual volunteers


Valerie Taylor

Collaborative learning

--Valerie Taylor 11:01, 21 June 2014 (UTC) I have been teaching part-time at De Anza since 2000. My business career has included work in the education, technology and consulting. I'm not just an online instructor - I have been an online student too. I have a M.S. in Education specializing in Online Teaching and Learning - all course work was online! When I'm not working, I enjoy traveling and sailing with my family. -- syllabus bio


In addition to making educational content available, it is essential to guide learners to the material. Finding and figuring out how to utilize the open courses is going to be a significant challenge. Lots of people are willing to share their content as has been demonstrated many times over. Now how to we get the information transferred to those who need it and who will put the knowledge to good use?

  • good open educational content is already available online - location, description, usability, target learners
  • collection and distribution - connections, networks
  • assessment - subject matter expert review and rating
  • trusted sources / reviewers - current information, point of view, credentials
  • lead by example - using available resources - process


My interests


I'm interested in:


--Vtaylor 13:22, 29 June 2008 (UTC) : Sometimes there is an "Add article" link in my collection box, sometimes not. I'm trying to make a WikiEducator "cheat sheet" so I want to include some of my own pages and some of the Special pages - which don't get the "add article" link. Help:Collections/Bug reports‎

Resource Status

For my own work, I need to designate a "status" (this may not be the right term) to wiki pages / articles, either individually or in groups.

  • memo to self (MTS) - essentially personal notes, random thoughts, to do list, links with/without explanation, my "stuff" and I really don't want it altered, but I appreciate comments, feedback as discussion entries.
  • read only - one or more pages that are part of a resource, notes for a course, lessons - these are available "as is". Unless I explicitly invite someone to help, these are "read-only" content. It may be useful to designate these as "complete" or "work in progress". Most OER content is in this group - feel free to make derivative work. Some way of identifying links to derivative works (through link backs) would be great so there is a record and trail if someone translated some or all of this OER.
  • help wanted - collaboration welcome - a stub or partial work, outline, description of contributions of expertise, knowledge and/or skills for expanding this work. This would be a great way to engage students or other contributors who want to help, but are not yet creating new content from scratch.
    • Invitation to collaborate (ITC) - template, category
Moodlesmilie.png Invitation to collaborate. Help and feedback are welcome. See discussion page.


Comments on this page

Janita Thomson Hélia DezimahataLory Phil Bartle
Shamsi Sohrab Kieran Groeger Jafar Filfil
Cristina Varela María (Nahir) Seijo Inês Pinto
Fátima Gouveia Raphael Correa Al Boss
Élodie Chatlais Iulia Bulibasa
Valerie Taylor Julio Issao Kuwajima Valeria Mulé
Friends: Gladys Gahona Jibril Touzi


(Comment.gif: Hello Valerie: Its our honour to have you in this workshop. Looking forward to work with you. --R C Sharma, PhD 09:39, 26 June 2013 (UTC))

Re: Kindly accept our heartfelt thanks for joining this eL4C54 WikiEducator Online Workshop. Hope you shall join us for future programmes too!--Ramesh Sharma, PhD 12:10, 6 July 2013 (UTC)


  • Somehow I got to be Wikibuddy. Not sure how I did it, because I feel I have so very much to learn. I do know that I owe you a big debt of gratitude for showing me this. Many thanks. --Philbartle 17:17, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
  • Hi I am one of the participants of the workshop'Wikieducator Gives back' .I am in your group .--Shijna 11:07, 23 July 2010 (UTC)

Hi Valerie and my hearty congratulations on winning the User Expo Award for February 2011. All the best. your page is a goldmine for information...Cynthia--Agnes 02:01, 9 February 2011 (UTC)


  • 02:17, 28 January 2008‎ Vtaylor (Talk | contribs | block)‎ . . (1,710 bytes) (+1,710)‎ . . (New page: ==My profile==