Jason G. Welker

Zurich International School

Eichenweg 2, 8134 Adliswil, Switzerland

welkerjason@yahoo.com, jwelker@zis.ch

http://www.welkerswikinomics.com

Linked in profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonwelker

Education:

Master in Teaching. Whitworth College. June 2004: Secondary Social Studies and History certification
Bachelor of Arts in Economics. Seattle University. June 2002. Minor in Japanese Language. Graduated Cum Laude
High School: International School of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 1998.

Experience:

Subject Matter Expert, International Baccalaureate Economics. March 2009 – present

Contracted by Pamoja Capital and Virtual High School to write the curriculum for online version of the IB Economics standard and higher level courses.

Board Member, Global Association of Teachers of Economics (GATE)

Elected by peers in the economics teaching community. GATE is a global membership organization sponsored by theCouncil for Economic Education exclusively for K-12 teachers and others who are interested in economic, financial and entrepreneurship education

Series Editor, Anthem Perspectives in Economics.

Working with authors and publisher to edit a series of thematic texts for the advanced high school economics student

IB and AP Economics teacher, Zurich International School, Switzerland. August 2008-present

• Year 1 and 2 HL and SL IB Economics
  
• Extended Essay supervisor for IB Econ students
  
• AP Microeconomics and AP Macroeconomics

IB and AP Economics teacher, Shanghai American School, China. August 2006 – June 2008.

• Year 1 and 2 HL IB Economics
  
• Extended Essay supervisor for IB Econ students
  
• AP students’ average scores: 4.4 on Macro, 4.1 on Micro
  
• Average IB Economics score: 5.7 on a scale of 7.

History teacher, Shanghai American School, China. August 2006 – present. Asian History is offered to ninth graders; the course includes units on China, Japan, Korea, India and the Middle East.

K-12 Department Head / Values Teacher. Ruamrudee International School. Bangkok, Thailand. Values Department. Aug 2004 – June 2006. I oversaw the curriculum development process for the school’s Values department, coordinated purchase orders, and organized monthly department meetings.

History and Geography teacher. Ruamrudee International School. Bangkok, Thailand. August 2004 – June 2006. Grade 10 class included units on Asian Geography and History

Student teacher, Social Studies. Mead High School, Spokane, WA. Aug 03 – Jun 04. Taught grade 10 World History and grade 12 Civics and Economics

Professional Development:

Council for Economic Education Annual Conference. Presenter, attendee, and board member for CEE conference in Washington, D.C. October 2009

Advanced Placement Economics Teachers Conference. Organized and hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Virginia, USA. November 2-4, 2008

International Baccalaureate Diploma Program Economics, Level 2/3 DP Economics workshop. The British International School of Shanghai, China. March 3-5, 2008.

Advanced Placement Economics.

• Two day workshop. Bangkok, Thailand. March 27-28, 2007.
• Summer Institute in AP Economics. Bellevue, WA. June 26-29, 2006.

International Baccalaureate Diploma Program Economics. Level 1 DP Economics workshop. The International School of Bangalore, India. Oct 21 – 23, 2005.

Leadership: “Essential Skills for Teacher Leaders”: EARCOS Weekend Workshop, Bangkok. Oct. 1-2, 2005.

EARCOS Teachers Conferences: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008. I presented and attended ETC every year while teaching in Asia. Presented a technology workshop titled “Wikis in Education” in March, 2008.

Workshops led:

Harnessing the Power of Web 2.0 in the Economics Classroom”

• Presented at the Council for Economics Education Annual Conference in Washington, D.C, USA. October 2009.

• Afternoon workshop presented at the AP Economics Summer Institute in Bellevue, Washington, USA. June 2008.
  
• Presented at ZIS Professional Development day to social studies teachers, Feb 2009

“Learning the Wiki Way – using the tools of Web 2.0 to enhance student learning”

• Presented at EARCOS Learning 2.0 Conference, Shanghai, September 2007

“Meeting the Other: Service Learning at two EARCOS Schools” (collaborated with colleague from HKIS on presentation): EARCOS Teacher’s Conference, Manila, Philippines. Mar 2006.

Teaching and Learning with Technology:

The following are online resources I have created and maintain for economics students and teachers.

“Welker’s Wikinomics” – A blog written for teachers and students of introductory economics. http://welkerswikinomics.com/blog

• Winner of the 2007 EduBlogs Award for best educational wiki
• Selected for inclusion in the European Commission’s Institute for Prospective Technological Studies study: “Learning 2.0: A Study on the Impact of Web 2.0 Innovations on Education and Training in Europe”

Awards and Honors

2007 EduBlog Award for “Best Educational use of a Wiki”

2008 Golden Paint Can Awards for “Education 2.0″ for Welker’s Wikinomics

Extra-Curricular Experience

Basketball coach,

• ZIS Varsity Girls. 2009-2010
  
• SAS Junior Varsity team. 2006-2008

Habitat for Humanity Philippines Chaperone. October 2007

Global Issues Group club advisor: September 2007 – 2008

Chinese Cultural Trip organizer and leader – October 2006 and 2007

Interact Rotary Club advisor, Ruamrudee International School. Nov 2004 – June 2006.

Basketball coach, RIS Junior Varsity team. 2004 – 2006

Activities and Interests:

Travel: My wife and I love to travel with our bikes to remote areas off the beaten track.
Outdoor recreation: Our summers are often spent in our mountain cabin in Northern Idaho where we have access to endless opportunities for activities such as mountain biking, backpacking, paddling our kayaks and fishing.
Sports: I love to enjoy sports such as golf, basketball and tennis on a recreational and social basis. Having played basketball in college, I always appreciate a good group of friends and colleagues who like to play for fun.

Feedback and Recognition:

My class Wiki and Blog were featured in Will Richardson’s book: (click on image to order from Amazon)

What Will Richardson says about Welker’s Wikinomics (Click on image to see full-sized):

A college Education professor who attended my Workshop “Harnessing the Power of Web 2.0 in the Economics Classroom”:

Professor Cyril Kesten, Regina University:

I’ve been in Washington, D.C. since Thursday attending the National Council on Economic Education conference. It has been a terrific conference – good people, good presentations and an interesting city. And the weather has been hot and hotter. A nice end to summer as I understand that I am heading back into a winter storm in Regina.

Although I saw many good presentations the highlight of the event was the last presentation I attended. A young fellow named Jason Welker did a presentation on how he integrates web 2.0 tools into his Economics courses. He talked about his wiki, his blog and how his students use these tools to create study guides for the AP and I.B. Economics courses he teaches.

Like many of us he has his favourite tools and uses them extensively. For instance, although he knows about twitter he doesn’t use it in his teaching. He uses blogs, wikis and social bookmarking in some very compelling ways. Even if you aren’t into Economics I’d encourage you to visit his work – there is lots to learn there about how to use and organize these tools.

Yet there is the interesting part of his presentation. He uses a smart board in his classroom and he does try to integrate the social bookmarking aspects of web 2.0 into his class. But he does allow that the bulk of the social networking tools are a very minor part of the students’ grade and that the activities are generally homework. His classes are generally fairly traditional lectures with the use of computer technology to make the graphs and calculations.

So this raises the question – can we really integrate instructional technology into the delivery aspects of our teaching? Or does Alec Couros’s courses work so well because they are teaching the medium. If the medium is the message then the delivery and the content can easily be instructional technology.

But what if the message consists of economic concepts? And the medium is merely that – the medium?

Maybe Welker is doing the best that can be done. Or is he? How can we integrate this technology into the intimate fabric of our classes. Not just as easily accessible information nor as something that is whiz bang but really peripheral but as something that fundamentally affects the teaching and learning within one particular classroom.

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