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Birth!
Born to Jim and Joan Pierce who were never on the cutting edge of technology but would have at least one television in every room of my childhood home. -
First Official Educational Institution
Began attending Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary School in Springfield, Missouri -
Fifth Grade: First Computer Sighting
In a local gifted program called WINGS, we had access to a computer. It was the first one I ever saw in person, and the people who used it scared me! I still can't wrap my head around actual computer programming. -
My First Word Processor!
My mother pressured me to take typing in high school, but I never had time with all my academic classes. In undergrad, my favorite professor allowed us to handwrite our papers, and, for other classes, I'd either peck them out on my mom's typewriter or pay a woman in her office to type them for me. Finally, though, in my Senior year, I got a fancy word processor that held up to ten typed pages as once! -
My First PC
Thanks to Windows, I was finally ready to own a personal computer. I was in graduate school at the time working on my MA in English at Clemson. -
Writing a Masters' Thesis
In the summer of 1994, I wrote my MA Thesis on a borrowed ancient Mac in a house that had random power surges. Good times. -
Nokia Rules
I was in my PhD Program at Saint Louis University, and I started teaching as an adjunct at a rural community college. My worried dad insisted I get this beauty....my very first cell phone! -
First Time Teaching Online
When I left the proprietary school I was teaching at full time to come to Florida and LSSC, I taught online courses for Missouri College Online. They were pre-designed, so I was really only grading things and holding mandatory live online meetings once a week, but it was a start! -
Attended my First Quality Matters Conference
Becoming a certified Peer Reviewer and Facilitator for QM's Applying the QM Rubric course really helped me to understand the challenge of quality course design for asynchronous online classes. -
Faculty Mentoring
For several years, I had the honor of working with my fellow faculty mentors as a Distance Learning Faculty Liaison. The specific task was helping others create accessible content for their courses in Canvas. -
Canvas Arrives!
Once LSSC adopted Canvas, I was feeling more comfortable, and I started developing my own classes. -
Eye-Opening Session at a QM Conference
One of the participants shared a lot of information on gamification for distance learning and technology-enhanced education. He shared a fascinating video about one school's use of Minecraft and VR technology during fully seated classes. -
Pandemic Mode! Weekly Walkthrough Videos (video link included)
During the pandemic, I was fortunate to have already embraced teaching fully online courses, but many of the students were plopped into the distance learning world without a lot of prep. I began using weekly video announcements in all of my courses. I call them my "Weekly Walkthrough" videos. Two benefits: student help & humanization of the instructor so they don't feel alone. YouTube -
First Fully Online Student Experience
In Summer 2022, I began UCF's Graduate Certificate in Instructional Design. This program is the first where I've truly been an online learner. While I've attended webinars and other online training, this was my first entry into being an online student. -
Current Work in Instructional Design
Joined Valencia's team of Faculty Development & Instructional Designers! Working with faculty on developing their courses both online and in person.