The Team
Tina Wilks
Tina is the Managing Director for Symbiont and has extensive expertise in the design of education and training resources across a wide range of delivery media. Her skills include management of both small and large projects.
Tina's expertise in education and training design and development encompasses needs identification and target audience analysis, stakeholder consultation, programme design and development. It also includes quality management systems and audits, course and programme evaluation and accreditation. She has been a pioneer in the migration of degree courses to the online format and the development of new e-learning for the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand.
Tina has undertaken a range of research activities and has written a number of papers for national and international conferences on e-learning. The most recent was in June 2008, when Tina presented a paper at Embracing Innovative eLearning Technologies, Sydney.
Her experience in the education sector includes:
- polytechnic tutoring (ranging from bridging programmes to diploma and degree levels)
- national trainer for the fitness industry (including developing training materials and running workshops)
- design/development of Biomedical Engineering training for Australia and New Zealand
- development of e-learning for various NZ national tertiary education institutions
- managing government and commercial course development projects
- workplace training and assessment
Tina is an avid road cyclist which she says gives her plenty of thinking time and is a great way to get rid of work stress. Although she admits that sometimes she can get very focused – like when she decided to do the 320km Enduro race around Lake Taupo, or the Coast to Coast race!
She likes to pack as much into life as possible, but would never pass up a relaxed evening with friends and a glass of good wine.
At present she is renting a half-renovated villa in the country – a stepping stone to finding her own pied-à-terre in rural New Zealand.
Jane Watson-Baker
In October 2009, Symbiont was fortunate to secure the services of Jane Watson-Baker as Project/Business Development Manager.
Jane’s expertise spans project management, business development, human resource management, coaching and mentoring, marketing and managing client relationships. Previous roles include work-based learning advisor for Cumbria Training & Enterprise Council in the UK; Education Manager for the Retail ITO, and National Manager for the Pharmacy ITO.
Having completed a wide range of projects, Jane enjoys the challenge of pulling all the pieces together and seeing a cohesive picture emerge from the varying strands. Having set up the Retail Modern Apprenticeship programme for the Retail ITO, one of her most satisfying moments was attending a graduation ceremony, and seeing the pride and triumph on the face of the apprentice as she accepted her certificate - the acknowledgement of the hours of work she had put into achieving the qualification.
Jane has a formidable skill set to share as Project Manager: working to deadlines with ease; negotiating with the client to ensure they are always informed and ‘in the loop’; the ability to see the large picture without losing sight of the numerous details that all need attention; awesome time management skills, and an instinctive grasp of what’s required, and when.
Outside work, Jane is a keen cyclist, all-year sea swimmer and sometime triathlete, having completed NZ Ironman in 2008. Jane relishes a challenge and the tougher the better. For her first attempt at running the marathon distance, she chose the Great Wall of China Marathon – arguably one of the most challenging in the world at that time! Jane is currently training for the Taupo cycle challenge and the Tour down Under in Adelaide in January 2010.
Jane isn’t afraid of hard work, and is able to communicate effectively at all levels. Calm, approachable and with a quiet, dry sense of humour, Jane is a committed, focused member of the Symbiont team. Welcome aboard!
Shona Roddick
Shona Roddick joined the team at Symbiont as Educational Designer late in 2009. Recently returned from the UK, Shona worked closely with the British Army, training soldiers in the use of support weapons and weapons systems.
Shona has a calm, no-nonsense approach to problem-solving and has a wide range of experience to share. As an Educational Designer, Shona enjoys the challenge of creating training solutions to fit the clients' needs and derives great pleasure from being involved at every stage, from initial discussions to final delivery of the products. Her most satisfying project was working with the British Army on the introduction of the new Sniper Rifle System and the relevant training courses resulting from this. The principles of educational design are her passion, and connecting with the learner is what Shona aims for; she never loses sight of her audience.
Shona has two children and is a devoted Buddhist. She enjoys yoga, meditation, target shooting (she is a qualified marksman) music, movies, and has recently discovered the glory of 42 Below Feijoa! Still involved in setting up her new home and coming to grips with the New Zealand summer(!), Shona is enjoying the transition to a simpler, less stressed lifestyle.
Tamzin Mackley
Things are moving up a notch in our visualisation department since Tamzin Mackley joined us as our in-house graphic designer.
When Symbiont's workload increased dramatically last year, we searched for a creative whizz and were incredibly lucky to secure the services of Tamzin. With 10 years behind her as a graphic designer, her creative roles have included photography, customised framing, photographic printing, textile and interior design as well as costume construction for film and television. And somewhere in there she has designed covers for America's 'Hollywood Reporter'.
Tamzin relishes the opportunity to share her skill set with us and is currently working on a wide range of projects. She is an expert at balancing all the elements in a design brief while meeting the specific needs of the client and enhancing the final outcome – the results speak for themselves.
Returning to the workforce after a break to raise twins, Tamzin moved up the coast from Wellington to enjoy life in the country. She is often found with her horse, Moe, in the family's classic car or behind the scenes managing her partner's band including organising tours and album recording.
Jackie Pyne
Shortly after Symbiont moved into new premises, our administrator was lured away. The processes she put in place kept things ticking over, but we really needed a person with that something 'extra'. To fill that gap, we hunted high and low, and were rewarded for our trouble when Jackie came to fill the gap.
A fearless, feisty redhead, Jackie ensures our office runs smoothly, keeping everyone in check(!) and an eye on all the office systems. Having built up and run her own successful businesses, Jackie has a wealth of experience and knowledge to share with us. Jackie likes nothing better than to get her teeth into a project; unafraid of hard work, she's happiest when everything is working like clockwork under her watchful eye.
An accomplished interior designer, Jackie loves colour and design, and has created magic in her home in Te Horo. Fond of horses, fine dining and good wine, one of her favourite pastimes is to indulge in all three at a day at the races!
Elizabeth Parker
Known by her fellow workers as Eagle Eye, Elizabeth is part of our editorial team. Her keen eye spots all our shortcomings and ensures clients’ files are delivered to the highest standard.
She has been in print journalism since the steam age of hot metal, has worked through the era of cold type and seen the introduction of the computer to desktop publishing. Starting out as a reporter in England, where she was born, she soon realised she enjoyed editing and polishing the work of others, from being a midwife to an apostrophe to the invisible hand behind the presentation of a feature article.
Elizabeth immigrated to New Zealand in the 70s and worked on The Auckland Star, Students’ Digest, The Evening Post and The Dominion Post as well as raising her family in Kapiti, just north of Wellington.
A latecomer to computers, she describes herself also as a digital immigrant. She is excited at the way learning is going, how the digital natives (usually the young ones who have grown up in the computer age) are challenging their teachers to adopt e-learning techniques and approaches in this brave new age of the internet.
This is her challenge now at Symbiont – to adapt her word skills to a multimedia learning environment.
In her spare time Elizabeth enjoys estate management tasks – painting the spare room and gardening – music, walking and dining with friends as well as developing her friendship with her computer. She is involved with her local church and WelMac, the Apple Mac users group, and hopes she can learn Mandarin before her Chinese grandson starts to talk, a race she thinks he will probably win.
Carolyn Hawe
Carolyn Hawe brings a wide range of experience in the education sector to Symbiont, having worked in secondary schools and polytechnics developing and teaching a range of practical programmes.
More recently she has been involved in the development of learning resources for the industry training sector.
Motivated to support the achievement of all learners, she became interested in further study and has recently completed a Masters in Adult Literacy and Numeracy Education. She sees huge benefits in embedding numeracy and literacy skills into vocational education.
Carolyn loves the outdoors and physical activity and has completed five Coast-to-Coast challenges and many other multisport events in the lower North Island.
'There is nothing better than standing on the top of a mountain range, having sweated your way to the top with a group of like-minded friends,' she says.
She is a member of the Porirua Grand Traverse Trust. The Grand Traverse is a cycle, run and kayak race over the triple peaks of Porirua.
As a former physical education teacher and gym owner, she loved to encourage people to extend themselves past the point they thought they could go. She gets this same satisfaction from working at Symbiont as an educational designer, knowing that her learners are also pushing new boundaries.
Andy Maciver
Editor Andy Maciver joined Symbiont in August after many years in the newspaper industry. Over the years he has experienced the transformation of production systems from hot metal printing, through cold-type and the eventual transition through many generations of digital systems.
After early experience on the Timaru Herald – when it still had classified ads on the front page – he moved to England for what became a 12-year OE, working in a range of newspapers from London to Birmingham and Worcestershire.
Returning to New Zealand in the mid-1980s and settling on the Kapiti Coast, where he and his partner Sylvia raised a family of four children, Andy became a duty editor with the New Zealand Press Association before moving to Wellington’s Evening Post as deputy features editor. He stayed with the paper through many editorial production system changes and its eventual merger with the morning paper, The Dominion, to form The Dominion Post.
Now, he’s busy adapting to the fresh challenges of working with Symbiont and looking to take further distance learning opportunities.
Away from his desk, he helps out in the family garden, enjoys tramping in the nearby Tararuas and elsewhere, and volunteers with local rail preservation organisation Steam Incorporated where he is secretary and guard.