Alumni Feature - Dr. Rachael Lewitzky, Instructional Technology Specialist
This feature originally appeared on the Office of Teaching and Learning March 2025 Newsletter. Please see here.
Meet an Instructional Technology Specialist
Dr. Rachael Lewitzky
What pathway did you take to your career as an Instructional Technology Specialists?
Perhaps a more appropriate question would be “What pathway didn’t I take to my career as an Instructional Technology Specialist?” I was lucky to complete co-op placements during my undergraduate degree in applied mathematics and statistics, which illuminated a common thread among my varied job experiences. Sometime between developing K-12 STEM applications, performing statistical analyses on educational data, designing assignments for computer science courses, and writing calculus course manuals, I realized I was interested in the dynamic of teaching and learning. After competing my B.Sc. at the University of Guelph, I attended teachers’ college at UBC. While my focus was teaching high school mathematics, I went on to teach science, gym, programming, art, music, English, and careers in K-12. Returning to Ontario introduced the opportunity to work in post-secondary course and curriculum development, which synthesized my pedagogical skillset with learning about educational technology.
After being convinced that I was finished with my post-secondary education, I slowly began to think about furthering my understanding of digital pedagogy by pursuing an M.Ed. What started off as part-time studies at the University of Ottawa quickly transitioned into full-time studies, as I wanted to immerse myself in research and courses. As you might have expected, this continued into a doctoral program at the University of Toronto. The focus of my work was instructional practices in university introductory statistics courses – a course that feels ubiquitous among programs, disciplines, and studies. Data interpretation, knowledge dissemination, graphical representation, numerical significance, and data collection – how were such topics introduced, scaffolded, explored, and critiqued?
Without making a long story longer, I completed my Ph.D. while teaching mathematics, statistics, digital media, education, and communication courses at a number of colleges and universities before returning to where my career journey began: the University of Guelph. In my role as an instructional technology specialist, I now draw on my professional and academic background in technology and pedagogy to support educators with their teaching practice.
What interests you about teaching and learning?
I am fascinated by how teaching and learning is constantly evolving. How do people teach? How do people learn? How has a person’s teaching practice changed over time? What inspires someone to learn something new? These are a few of the questions that I enjoy discussing with educators and learners alike. Extending these conversations to the use of educational technology, I enjoy exploring various technologies to investigate how they can help make education more accessible, engaging, and empowering.
What advice would you give new instructors?
Share your experiences. Have conversations with colleagues, communities of practice, friends, teaching teams – anyone and everyone. Share your successes and lessons learned – you never know how your story will impact others!