Andrew Smyk (@andrewsmyk) is the program coordinator for Sheridan’s Interactive Media Management (IMM) post-graduate program.

Andrew has a MEd from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto and the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) program. He is a user-experience designer with a focus on mobile design, computer-mediated learning and communication. He is also a dad, an educator, a coffee aficionado, an avid cyclist, a speaker and an HTML5 Evangelist.

Andrew teaches IMM from a unique perspective, as a graduate of the program and having done interactive agency work. He brings a rapid-change approach to IMM, bringing new technologies into the program on an on-going basis. Being able to adapt and learn new technologies before they become commonplace is one of the hallmarks of the IMM program.

Andrew has worked on a college-wide academic strategy initiative for increasing interdisciplinary and inter-professional learning experiences for students. In the past four years, he has been researching and implementing ways to increase student engagement through technology and social media, with a focus on mobile learning (mlearning) and communication. Education no longer happens solely in the classroom, and adult learners’ demand for lifelong learning is pushing more and more content into online environments. Andrew is interested in how technology augments learning outside of the traditional classroom and how the web presentation of course material is processed and retained by learners.

Andrew’s past clients include Bell Canada, Bell Mobility, Alliance-Atlantic, Molson Canadian and the Royal Bank of Canada. Andrew writes about how kids adapt and use technology on his blog and has spoken at FITC:Screens, Web Conference at Penn State (PSUWeb), IxDA Toronto, Editors’ Association of Canada, PSEWeb, HighEdWeb Region and National conferences.

Andrew specializes in user experience (UX), mobile web design, interface design, information architecture, user-centred design/usability, online learning and collaborative environments, instructional and curriculum design and development and agile project management.