I can point to a few pivotal moments and people who impacted my future direction. I’ve written about it before.
In 2005, I was antsy to try something new. I grabbed a copy of the NYU continuing education catalog and signed up for a couple of courses, including an instructional design class. It happened to be taught online by Joanne Tzanis. I was blown away by the possibilities.
Fast forward to the end of 2005 when I started to follow the blogs of distance and online learning educators, and I saw a blog post by Terry Anderson about his Online End of Class Party that he wrote about on his Virtual Canuk blog. I posted about it on my Blogger (!) account on Friday, December 09, 2005.
As I start this new semester, I think about the impact of these moments and people. While the technology to support online learning has changed, the possibilities and issues haven’t. I’ve often referred to online learning as the convergence of messy and magical. Take a minute to read Dr. Anderson’s blog, and you’ll know what I mean.
Featured Image Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash