At the moment, I reside in Boilermaker Country, in West Lafayette, IN though my educational journey has quite literally taken me around the world. I graduated from Purdue University in 2007 as an elementary education major which I leveraged to obtain a teaching position in London, England where I spent 4 years abroad teaching, traveling, and learning all I could from the many diverse cultures I was able to visit whilst using London as my travel hub. Upon returning to Indiana in 2012, I took over as a 4-5 grade High Ability teacher prior to moving into the position of Elementary Math and Science Specialist for the Indiana Department of Education where my main focus was on the development of the Math and Science Frameworks still utilized by teachers across the state.

I have 2 young children, ages 5 and 8 who large amounts of my time are dedicated to, however beyond that, I’m an avid trail runner when it’s not too muddy on the banks of the Wabash River. An oddity here on this topic, I run in sandals, and last year was unfortunate enough to learn that while running in the snow, shoes are probably a better option should one wish to avoid frostbite.  

Regarding expectations for the course, mine are quite high as I’ve been able to leverage so much of my education thus far for use in my current job, where a large portion of my energy is spent developing online courses for teachers in supporting their development in Project Based Learning and STEM instruction.  Any and all of my past experiences, academic, or professional, I would be more than happy to share with anyone in the course in order to help make them more rounded and successful.  I’m looking forward to learning alongside everyone and can’t wait to get started!

 

Currently, I am a speech-language pathologist. I have worked primarily in school settings, but my experience also includes working in skilled nursing facilities and early intervention settings (e.g., a center or a child’s home). I now work in an outpatient clinic treating children and adults with various disabilities. I use game-based learning platforms like Kahoot to teach adults social communication skills for workplace success. Most of those sessions are online, so I have been using online learning principles I’ve learned in the IST program, especially Dr. Bonk’s TECH-VARIETY framework to engage them online. With the pediatric population, I have introduced parents to different EdTech tools to support their child’s speech-language skills at home. 

 

I decided to pursue an IST degree because I am interested in using online learning and EdTech to help individuals with communication disorders learn, especially those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. I also plan to leverage what I learn in the IST program to support others who care for them (e.g., other speech pathologists, educators, and families).

 

Aside from work and school, I enjoy reading, gardening, traveling, and outdoor runs. My husband and I are trying to do early morning runs now. Hopefully, I can keep it up this semester. 
 

I look forward to getting to know you all and wish you a successful semester! 

 

P.S. I’m serving as the GIST EdD student rep this year, and I’m excited about the conference in March. I have never been to I.U., so I’m contemplating attending the in person. 

This is my first year and second class in the IST program pursuing a Doctor of Education.

I became interested in online education after enrolling my elementary school-age daughters in online classes after we relocated to Japan in 2011. I completed an M. Sci in educational technologies in 2017. My current research interests include gamifying museums using augmented reality and creating language lessons for immersive learning in virtual reality. I am currently working on an online course for tourism studies students in addition to teaching business English and digital literacy to undergrads at universities in Japan. I am open to partnering with overseas institutions for collaborative projects, presentations, and publishing papers.

In addition to virtual reality research, I love being immersed in art and nature. I enjoy attending art shows and gallery exhibitions with a keen appreciation for Chinese and Japanese ink painting and contemporary Japanese art and architecture. In my spare time, I enjoy hiking locally and going on 3-day/2-night spiritual pilgrimages/digital detoxes around Shikoku, a nearby island known for its temples.

I'm in Japan's standard time zone so I might post comments and classwork in the dead of night to those in the USA. I assure you that I'm not completing all of my assignments at 3 or 4:00 a.m., except for when I am, haha. 

Nice to meet you all, and I look forward to learning with and from you this semester.

Since leaving the classroom, I’ve explored a couple of different avenues, first devoting some time to trying to knock the rust off and produce writing of my own for a change. I then dabbled in graphic design for a few months, which gave me my first experience with online education (aside from the handful of classes I taught over Zoom early in the pandemic). The field of instructional design seems to live at the intersection of so many of my interests: education, communication, visual media.

I was fortunate to find a position as an instructional designer at a community college just a few months ago, so I’m working to learn as much as I can as fast as I can to be successful in my new career. My current role leans toward technical support, but there have been opportunities to contribute to other projects too, and I’m hoping eventually to make my way to the side of the house that focuses on course design.

In my spare time, I’m a gardener and a tennis player, so I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of better weather. The weather in Texas has always been erratic, but I’ve finally given up on visions of a kitchen garden full of veggies and have shifted my attention to pollinator gardening. Discovering the app iNaturalist and the City Nature Challenge in 2021 led me to try to document all the insect life in my garden. Five hundred pictures later, it's unclear whether this is a hobby or an obsession. Regardless, it’s another example of technology facilitating learning. I still love books on paper, but Google Docs and various LMS transformed the way I taught writing. Now I’m looking forward to learning other ways that technology can enable educators to accomplish more while also connecting learners to resources in ways that would allow them to take ownership of their own learning… just as I am on my way to becoming an amateur entomologist.