New member of CEI team – Introducing myself

Hello. My name is Marianna Majzonova (NB. pronounce ‘Y’ instead of ‘J’) and I joined the CEI Team (Centre for Education Innovation) last week to support academics and colleagues across the university with learning technologies.  I would like to take a moment to tell you more about myself and my first two weeks in the job.

I am originally from South of Slovakia, from a small town called Nové Zámky. My foreign adventures started soon after I left secondary school and I studied and worked in The Netherlands (Den Haag) for a year. In 2002 I returned to Slovakia and studied Economics and Public Administration at the University of Alexander Dubček in Trenčín. Shortly after my graduation I left the country and moved to Cardiff. One could say that I followed my dreams.

I knew that working with children could help me improve my English and I quickly realised that it can increase my chances to get a job I like and to be part of the interesting community. I was a nursery nurse for over a year and thanks to this opportunity I got step closer to my preferred career.

Since 2008 I’ve been working in Eliesha Training and held two positions here. When I joined the company I was part of the Learning and Development Administration Team. As a senior administrator, I was supervising a small team of administrators and have been dealing with awarding bodies and managing accredited programmes. In 2013 I accepted their offer to become a technical and e-learning officer, and here I found my true passion for learning technologies. Suddenly the world became much clearer in terms of my future focus. Blended learning and e-learning design has never been so exciting.  My objective was to provide a flawless, meaningful, user-friendly and attractive service as possible. I certainly enjoyed the whole process, from finding out what clients want, building the resources, researching, testing, to presenting final products, monitoring and improving post service. Amazing stuff.

My first seven days in CEI: Meet the team and let’s make the most out of technologies

My first week in the job was truly special. Gethin, Dewi, Owen and Nathan have been really welcoming, encouraging and friendly.  Sometimes I feel like I’ve known them for many years.  The first few weeks have been packed with meetings and more meetings. I got together with the wider learning technologies team and was interested to hear about their projects and plans. I was impressed with Learning Central and the tools within. Thank you Karl Luke for a great introduction to Panopto. I have been finding my ways around the new systems and processes, slow start but all the more fun.

I very much look forward to next week’s Speak Week, where employees can say and share their views and discuss hot topics like well-being; get help with technologies, and information on subjects tailored to particular Colleges and Professional Services. We are also working on ‘Advice drop-in sessions’ where one of us will be happy to help you with technology related queries, and what’s more important, you will have a chance to practice.

In short, that’s me and my first days here. I’m certain that I will meet you at some point over the next weeks but be encouraged to say hello if you are in McKenzie House.