# data[].attributes.headline
I was born in 1979, so I am right on the cusp of what Palfrey and Gasser (2008) describe as a digital native (those born after 1980). I grew up a middle-class home and my parents were both educators. They used technology for both education and play. These are two concepts that are inextricably linked, as emerging scholarship on gaming literacy and community building suggests. We had an early Apple computer in our home on which we did word processing and played games like Oregon Trail and Quest. Despite my digital native status, in many ways I feel like a digital immigrant, since I exhibited some luddite-esque tendencies (preferring printed text and in-person interaction to digital media) well into my 20s. I didn’t have email address until I went to college in 1997, and I didn't have a cell phone until I moved to Los Angeles in 2003 to attend grad school. I was in graduate school until 2007, which meant that I didn’t have time to engage in the burgeoning social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) during that time. However, I was concerned with building my digital footprint as a writer and a teacher. I published in online journals and eventually created a website to offer freelance writing and teaching services. By the time I left graduate school in 2007, I had a LinkedIn site and was sticking my toe into the social media waters.

# data[].attributes.subject
I was born in 1979, so I am right on the cusp of what Palfrey and Gasser (2008) describe as a digital native (those born after 1980). I grew up a middle-class home and my parents were both educators. They used technology for both education and play. These are two concepts that are inextricably linked, as emerging scholarship on gaming literacy and community building suggests. We had an early Apple computer in our home on which we did word processing and played games like Oregon Trail and Quest. Despite my digital native status, in many ways I feel like a digital immigrant, since I exhibited some luddite-esque tendencies (preferring printed text and in-person interaction to digital media) well into my 20s. I didn’t have email address until I went to college in 1997, and I didn't have a cell phone until I moved to Los Angeles in 2003 to attend grad school. I was in graduate school until 2007, which meant that I didn’t have time to engage in the burgeoning social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) during that time. However, I was concerned with building my digital footprint as a writer and a teacher. I published in online journals and eventually created a website to offer freelance writing and teaching services. By the time I left graduate school in 2007, I had a LinkedIn site and was sticking my toe into the social media waters.

# data[].attributes.body
Technology blasts from my past. Photo taken in Popenguine, Senegal in May 2018.

# data[].attributes.headline
I recently returned from leading ten students in a travel study course to Senegal. While we were there, we partnered with a bilingual secondary school in the village of Popenguine. The teachers are using Khan Academy and other digital platforms connect students to people (and opportunities) all over the world. This experience reminded me that the terms “digital native” and “digital immigrant” (and the timeframes they include) are narrow (and problematic) in that they are dependent on access to such technologies. Many of the Senegalese teachers who work at the school were born after 1980, but they are far from being digital natives, since they didn’t have technology in their homes or schools until they went to college. Inspired by this experience and our emerging partnership with the school, I chose to read “Thinking Globally, Composing Locally,” an interview with Kirk St. Amant and Rich Rice on Kairos. As I continue to design my courses to better integrate technology, facilitate international connections, and building intercultural competency, this notion of intercultural rhetoric as it applies to multimodalities will be of the utmost importance.

# data[].attributes.subject
I recently returned from leading ten students in a travel study course to Senegal. While we were there, we partnered with a bilingual secondary school in the village of Popenguine. The teachers are using Khan Academy and other digital platforms connect students to people (and opportunities) all over the world. This experience reminded me that the terms “digital native” and “digital immigrant” (and the timeframes they include) are narrow (and problematic) in that they are dependent on access to such technologies. Many of the Senegalese teachers who work at the school were born after 1980, but they are far from being digital natives, since they didn’t have technology in their homes or schools until they went to college. Inspired by this experience and our emerging partnership with the school, I chose to read “Thinking Globally, Composing Locally,” an interview with Kirk St. Amant and Rich Rice on Kairos. As I continue to design my courses to better integrate technology, facilitate international connections, and building intercultural competency, this notion of intercultural rhetoric as it applies to multimodalities will be of the utmost importance.

# data[].attributes.body
Two of my Normandale students multimodalities (music, images, text) to teach Spanish to a student from the International School of Popenguine, Senegal.

# data[].attributes.headline
In terms of my teaching and academic interests, social media and multimodality have helped me create and maintain global connections. Since 2009 I have taught French, interpreting/translation, and intercultural competence in the World Languages Department at Normandale Community College. My personal research interests include immigrant art and narratives coming out of Paris, West African literature and women’s movements, and francophone film. I have used technologies like Google docs, Skype, Vimeo, and Padlet to both connect with people in France and Africa and communicate information about them and their work to my students in Minnesota. It is through these technologies and the use of images and videos in my language and culture courses that I move beyond alphabetic literacy, as Palmeri describes, and engage my students in multimodal learning. 

# data[].attributes.subject
In terms of my teaching and academic interests, social media and multimodality have helped me create and maintain global connections. Since 2009 I have taught French, interpreting/translation, and intercultural competence in the World Languages Department at Normandale Community College. My personal research interests include immigrant art and narratives coming out of Paris, West African literature and women’s movements, and francophone film. I have used technologies like Google docs, Skype, Vimeo, and Padlet to both connect with people in France and Africa and communicate information about them and their work to my students in Minnesota. It is through these technologies and the use of images and videos in my language and culture courses that I move beyond alphabetic literacy, as Palmeri describes, and engage my students in multimodal learning. 

# data[].attributes.body
On location filming Les Voix africaines de Paris (African Voices of Paris) with Rwandan former journalist and refugee living in Paris, Lucie Umukundwa.

# data[].attributes.headline
Over the past decade, I’ve become an avid social media user. This use of social media has both resulted from and shaped my career paths and social interests. Last summer I ran a school board campaign in solidarity with two other candidates (for 3 open seats) and we used Facebook and Twitter to coordinate push out our messaging to a community of 40k voters (we were all elected in November). I’ve found social media to be an effective way of community building and engaging in social and political activism.

# data[].attributes.subject
Over the past decade, I’ve become an avid social media user. This use of social media has both resulted from and shaped my career paths and social interests. Last summer I ran a school board campaign in solidarity with two other candidates (for 3 open seats) and we used Facebook and Twitter to coordinate push out our messaging to a community of 40k voters (we were all elected in November). I’ve found social media to be an effective way of community building and engaging in social and political activism.

# data[].attributes.body
My campaign Facebook page that has now morphed into a community building page for members of our district.