About me
My name is Aixia Zhang. I am originally from China. I came to the United States in 2004 to continue my education. Before coming to the United States, I had received my associate degree in Architecture Engineering Budgeting and my Master of Education degree in Educational Technology from Nanjing Normal University, China. During my studying as a graduate student in Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, I worked as a research assistant and was responsible for conducting research and, needs analysis, and developing, and facilitating web-base courses.
Upon my arrival to the United States, In January 2006, I entered the Masters of Science degree in Instructional Technology at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington to further expand my knowledge and experiences. Decision to purse another master degree in instructional technology was the result of my search for finding a Doctoral program in the field. As I began reviewing instructional technology programs in the United States, I realized that the instructional technology programs in the United States are completely different from similar programs in China. Thus, I decided to enter a master’s degree program before pursing a Ph.D. degree. I am glad I made this decision because I believe I am now very well prepared to begin my career as an instructional designer/technologist. I truly enjoyed my learning experiences in the program and feel that the program was able to help me learn how to work in a real world environment.
My working experience, rather to say, began as a part-time English teacher in elementary school during my undergraduate years. I taught 4 th grade students English grammar and reading. The next part-time job still was an English teacher, teaching juniors at the college level English for grammar, listening, and reading in my pursuing Master Degree. I taught English for 4 years. As a teacher teaching at different levels and schools, I learned how to adjust or cater my teaching to the learners’ needs. I learned to create differentiated instruction to address learners and their needs in different ages. Upon completion of my associate degree in Architecture Engineering Budgeting, I began working as a financial analyst in an electric power equipment plant. In this position, I learned some skills about reducing the production cost, e.g., improving their work flow and reorganizing resources including personnel, facilities, and equipments. In addition, I trained the staff in how to use emerging technology such as Word processing, Excel to enhance their work efficiency and to improve their skills. This point, I realized that technology can be used to facilitate human learning and working performance.
During my graduate program at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, I worked as a graduate lab assistant in the Watson School of Education. As a graduate assistant, I was responsible for supporting and maintaining three computer labs, providing technical support to faculty and students, and shooting live classroom videos for faculty. These tasks helped me add to my knowledge and skills and learn how to use emerging technology.
I believe my background and experiences plus my instructional design knowledge and skills have prepared me for a full-time career in instructional technology field in any educational setting: corporate, university/college, and government.
