The role of the educational technologist is necessarily collaborative: I work with faculty to make their courses work well. My own projects are rarely solo endeavours, but rely on the expertise of the video, graphics, and web experts in Open Learning. I pride myself on being someone who people enjoy working with and I strive to learn alongside my colleagues as we build together.
In Spring 2022, I completed a Performance Review [D.7.1]. As part of this process, my colleagues were asked to complete two surveys: one on my competency in my role [D.7.3] (38 respondents) and one on the quality of my technical assistance [D.7.4] (16 respondents). Many of the responses spoke directly to the question of collegiality. Selected quotations from the long-form responses follow.
Dr. Gray creates trusting relationships with colleagues.
I cannot begin to capture the positive effects Brenna has had on our team and our university since she joined us. In addition to her brilliance and dedication, she is also a caring and delightful person to work with. Her dedication and her work sets a very high bar for us to meet, but she is also so much fun it is always a blast to try and keep up.
I appreciate the work she does and feel privileged to be able to collaborate with BG.
She has done a tonne of faculty care work that has been just as important as the technical support in advancing our institution’s use of technology in teaching as the actual technical support, because sometimes I felt like I didn’t have the energy to do more during the pandemic. However, after a conversation or a listeneing (sic) to one of her podcasts, I would get reinvigorated … or at least would find hope again. She is just really effective at what she does: facilitating student-centred faculty instruction using technology.
Beyond her fundamental job requirements, she has shown exceptional leadership and community building on our campus to really make TRU a better place and she inspires others to work towards the same goals. I am so pleased to have her as a colleague.
Brenna’s contribution to TRU has been enormous. She epitomizes integrity, commitment and professionalism in her interactions and work.
I find her easy to talk to, patient, and gives great advice and/or instruction on learning technologies (both in person and in written instruction). The workshop, and podcasts she create are engaging, helpful and display her vast knowledge on the subject. You can tell that she is very passionate about learning technologies and she is great at what she does!
Brenna is thoughtful, open, and communicates exceptionally well. She incorporates her interests into the TRU community like gifts for us all, and she works very hard to create inclusive, open environments in anything she leads. I appreciate her incorporation of vulnerability and honesty into open scholarship, and I think TRU is exceptionally lucky to have her.
It’s always fantastic to work with Brenna and I jump at every opportunity to do so.
It really is amazing how quickly she responds to faculty.
In one of the Letters of Support I have submitted [D.8.2], Jennifer Jill Fellows writes:
Dr. Gray is unwaveringly supportive, and has a rare capacity to believe so firmly in the capabilities of the people she is guiding that we can’t help but believe in ourselves too.
In her peer review of my workshop [D.5.4], Elizabeth Templeman writes:
Most of my interactions with her have been as a workshop participant, and a lost colleague seeking guidance with the technology. In every case, and in particular speaking about this workshop she so generously provided for the SL leaders, she has greatly reduced the stress and sensation of being overwhelmed by the changes of our current situation, and the need to adapt so rapidly to remote teaching and learning. We are fortunate to have her, modelling how to adapt even as we hold to what we value as educators.
And in her peer review of my open podcasting course [D.5.7], Lyn Baldwin writes:
Given the target audience of this professional development course (i.e., educators with significant commitments), I deeply appreciated Brenna’s scheduling the start of synchronous activities 5 minutes after the advertised start time. Not only did this give a chance for informal conversation between participants, it acknowledged the participants as learners with complex demands on their times. Each session started with an engaging check-in slide that also provided an opportunity for students to arrive “in place.” I also appreciated that the format of the synchronous session followed a very similar pattern, which minimized anxiety for participants, especially as many were participating from distant locales.
I believe that success in this role requires collegiality, a respect for the shared working space, and an eagerness to collaborate. I am heartened to see that my colleagues represent my work in these terms.
