Awards & Funding

Indigenous applicants to the MET program (i.e. either the Master of Educational Technology or the Graduate Certificate in Educational Technology), as well as Indigenous students currently in the MET program are eligible to apply for the Award; however, priority is given to Indigenous students whose traditional territory falls, at least in part, within Canada. This includes First Nations, Métis or Inuit students and may also include students from the United States of America.

• Award applicants must indicate on the application form whether they identify as an Indigenous student whose traditional territory falls, at least in part, within Canada.
• Self-identification data is collected solely for the purpose of adjudication to be considered for Award funding.
• Applicants are not required to provide proof of their Indigeneity as part of their application; however, please note, the University may request further information to confirm Indigenous eligibility.
• Further resources on Indigenous self-identification at UBC (Vancouver campus) can be found below:
• https://vancouver.calendar.ubc.ca/admissions/canadian-aboriginal-applicants
• https://you.ubc.ca/applying-ubc/indigenous-admissions/
• https://indigenous.ubc.ca/

If an applicant, you must have also completed an application to the MET program itself and have an accepted offer of admission in order to be eligible.

Applicants will be evaluated for inclusive excellence based on the below noted criteria:

• Academic excellence (e.g. academic record, scholarships/awards held)
• Engagement with educational technology
• Leadership abilities and/or professional and relevant extracurricular interactions and collaborations. For example, this could include:
  • Mentoring
  • Teaching
  • Supervisory experience
  • Project management
  • Chairing committees
  • Organizing conferences/meetings
  • Elected positions held
  • Training, certification, professional development
  • Language revitalization work (e.g. curriculum or resource creation)

Applicants must complete an online application form. The below documents and information should be prepared prior to beginning the application.

Documents Required

• CV*
• Academic Transcript(s)*
• Personal Statement
• Contribution and/or Connection to Indigenous Communities Statement
• Letters of Reference (2)*

*Applicants may grant access to transcripts, CV and letters of references submitted with their MET application. The option to submit an updated CV or letters of reference specific to the award will be available on the application.

Personal Statement

Please provide a personal statement outlining your eligibility for this award, based on the evaluation criteria. A strong personal statement will clearly illustrate the connections between your interest in pursuing the Master of Educational Technology and how you have (in the past) or intend to (in the future) apply your knowledge and skills with leadership and educational technology. Your personal statement may be written or oral (i.e. video or audio recording). If written, should be no more than 500 words. If oral, should be no more than 3 minutes.

Contribution and/or Connection to Indigenous Communities

As noted above, preference will be given to applicants who demonstrate contributions and/or connection to Indigenous communities. Relative to this criteria, and as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Article 9, “Indigenous peoples and individuals have the right to belong to an Indigenous community or nation, in accordance with the traditions and customs of the community or nation concerned. No discrimination of any kind may arise from the exercise of such a right.”

To this end, please describe contributions you have made or connections you have to an Indigenous community(ies). Statement may be written or oral (i.e. video or audio recording). If written, should be no more than 2,500 words. If oral, should be no more than 5 minutes.

The Master of Educational Technology program will convene an adjudication committee made up of UBC faculty members and select non-faculty members. The committee will review the applications and select the successful recipient.

Please contact met.support@ubc.ca for additional support regarding this award.

Your application must include:

1. The MET Degree Student Travel Fund Application Form, completed and signed. (You may send the application by email to met.support@ubc.ca, and if accepted, forward the original by mail with your travel documents).
2. An abstract of your paper, outline for the workshop, or overview of the poster you are presenting.
3. A written invitation, addressed to you, to present at a conference (email confirmation is acceptable). If a personalized letter/email is not available, please submit your generic acceptance letter AND a copy of the conference program where you and your presentation title are clearly listed.

IMPORTANT: Do not include receipts in your application. Retain your receipts for reimbursement once your travel grant application has been approved and all travel has been completed.

Applications may be submitted at any time.

Applications will be checked for eligibility and adjudicated by the MET Executive Committee as necessary.

To apply for reimbursement of expenses up to the approved amount, you must submit the following to the MET program office within 30 days of travel:

• A copy of your MET Degree Student Travel Fund confirmation email.
• Your original receipt and original airline boarding passes for all legs of your journey (not photocopies).
• A signed Mileage & Authorized Travel Expense Claim Form. Please note you can be reimbursed in Canadian or US funds, and you must clearly specify your preference.

Send all documents to:

MET Program, UBC Faculty of Education, 1304-2125 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4

There is clear scholarly and professional value in presenting work at academic or professional conferences, and MET makes some limited funding available to students to present your work at relevant conferences. We caution you, however, about presenting work at predatory or questionable conferences.

Predatory conferences or predatory meetings are an expansion of the “predatory publishing” business model, which produces “academic journals” that exist only to collect article processing charges from authors. There is no legitimate peer review: every article submitted with payment is published. Publishing an article in a predatory journal implies that your research is not good enough to be published in a legitimate journal. Similarly, predatory conferences may appear to be legitimate academic conferences, but have no proper editorial control over presentations, and advertising can include claims of involvement of prominent academics who are, in fact, uninvolved. Registration fees are typically high.

MET will not fund student travel to any predatory conference. If you are unsure about the legitimacy of a conference, please contact the MET administration team for guidance.

There are many conferences in the field of educational and learning technologies that take place both locally and internationally. Below is a very short list of conferences and organizations that we are familiar with. These may be of interest for you to attend as a participant or as a presenter, and we encourage students to seek out additional conferences around the world.

• Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)Links to an external site. – E-Learn World Conferences on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education
• BCNetLinks to an external site.
• Canadian Network for Innovation in EducationLinks to an external site.
• The Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE)Links to an external site.
• Clute Institute for Academic ResearchLinks to an external site. – sponsoring concurrent conferences targeting Education & Administrative issues (Teaching & Learning Conferences), several times per year
• EdMediaLinks to an external site. – World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia, and Telecommunications (sponsored by the AACE – Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education)
• EDUCAUSELinks to an external site. – EDUCAUSE provides a variety of professional development experiences, both face- to-face and online, that address the networking and learning needs of the higher education IT
• E-LearnLinks to an external site. – World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education (sponsored by the AACE – Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education)
• Investigating our Practices – UBC/BC Teachers’ Federation conference held annually at UBC
• The Online Learning ConsortiumLinks to an external site. – a collaborative community of higher education leaders and innovators, dedicated to advancing quality digital teaching and learning experiences.
• WISE – World Innovation Summit for EducationLinks to an external site. – a three-day forum held every two years