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Martin Weller’s wonderful EDUCAUSE Review article Twenty Years of Edtech reminded me that I’ve also been working in edtech for 20 years.
Below is a somewhat idiosyncratic timeline of my edtech career. I’ve included events that for some reason stand out in my own mind, and that relate in some way to educational technology.
This exercise is perhaps useful as it demonstrates the non-linear nature of our alt-ac and edtech careers.
I’d be really curious to see your career timeline.
1998: Finishes PhD in sociology / demography from Brown while working as Visiting Assistant Professor at West Virginia University. Teaches residential courses using digital platforms and tools. Consults with McGraw-Hill to build a sociology website companion to textbooks. Teaching a 3 and 3 load in the Sociology Department.
1999: Founds lecturesonline.org Sells site to Britannica.com and begins working for the Education Division in San Francisco.
2000: Dot-com Bubble peaks and crashes. (See Britannica.com 2000 Super Bowl ad).
2001: Britannica San Francisco office closes. Move from Morgantown WV to Hamden CT. Gets job at Quinnipiac University as a senior program manager / instructional designer as part of the team starting QUOnline.
2002: Moves online courses from to campus instance of Blackboard. Gets gig as adjunct faculty in the Business School.
2003: Gets overly excited about learning objects - spearheads the adoption of Masterfile bolt on to Blackboard that never really changes much of anything.
2004: Loves Macromedia Breeze for voice-over PowerPoints and Breeze Live. Blackboard IPO
2005: QUOnline grows like gangbusters. Blackboard buys WebCT. Macromedia is sold to Adobe.
2006: Moves to Hanover NH as a trailing spouse. Teaching online courses allows me to be portable and flexible with parenting. Starts teaching online courses on The Transformation of Higher Education, Strategic Planning, and Leadership Consulting.
2007: Makes living teaching online courses and consulting.
2008: Transitions from consulting to full-time role as senior learning technologist at Dartmouth. Co-authors article on Business Cards of the Future for EDUCAUSE Review. Becomes an EDUCAUSE ECAR Fellow.
2009: Starts blogging for InsideHigherEd. Attends EDUCAUSE’s Learning Technology Leadership Institute. Writes article on Lecture Capture for an ECAR research bulletin.
2010: Moves to director of learning and technology at Dartmouth’s Master of Health Care Delivery Science (MHCDS) program. Collaborates on an article about Moving Beyond the Org Chart: Library and IT Collaboration for Course Design and Support.
2011: Helps launch Dartmouth’s first ever low-residency degree program. Serves on the EDUCAUSE Annual Meeting Program Committee
2012: Participates in the LMS Steering Committee that recommended the switch from Blackboard to Canvas, and in the Digital Dartmouth Strategic Planning process. Gives keynote at the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education Annual Conference.
2013: Starts new job as director of digital learning initiatives at Dartmouth. Joins the Board of Directors at MedU (now Aquifer). Featured speaker at the Teaching Professor Technology Conference
2014: Dartmouth launches the Gateway Initiative for course redesign and joins edX Consortium. Gets invited to the White House for the 1st of 3 times for a Digital Learning Event (In reality, held in the Old Executive Office Building - but still pretty cool). Writes article for PBS Media Shift The Real Legacy of MOOCs: Better Introductory Courses.
2015: Second Dartmouth online program - a Masters in Public Health - begins. First DartmouthX (edX) course Introduction to Environmental Science is launched. Writes article Not a Future CIO. Older daughter graduates from high school.
2016: Helps plan and co-host the Inaugural Leadership Roundtable on Academic Transformation, Digital Learning, and Design at Georgetown University. Gives a keynote address at the Council of Independent Colleges annual meeting. Moderates panel at a White House event. Speaks at SXSWEdu. Writes chapter for book Crucible Moments – Inspiring Library Leadership. Leading Non-Incremental Change in the Academic Library: One View from Outside Your Profession.
2017: Attends first HAIL (Harvesting Academic Innovation for Learners) Storm event in Ann Arbor Michigan. First DartmouthX Professional Certificate course in Retail and Omnichannel Management goes live. Becomes a senior fellow at the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS) at Georgetown, and the inaugural fellow for the National Council for Online Education. Participates in the EDUCAUSE / CLIR Leading Change Institute. Younger daughter graduates from high school.
2018: Happily working to direct digital learning initiatives at Dartmouth's Center for the Advancement of Learning (DCAL), while balancing various local and national service and scholarly commitments. Empty nester.
Would you be able to construct a timeline of your career?
