Here's Lisa...

Hi!

I'm Lisa Richardson, and I am a 32-year-old mother, graduate student, and graduate assistant. It was pretty scary leaving my full-time position in Washington, DC to attend a PhD program full-time in the deep South. I'm a native New Yorker, born and raised in The Bronx, NYC of Jamaican heritage. I'm studying Higher Education Administration at The University of Southern Mississippi, with a minor in Instructional Technology. I work in the Department of Educational Leadership and Research, and I will be seeking a tenure-track position in Higher Education Administration next year.

This summer is pretty hectic for me, as I am taking a 12-credit load on top of taking comprehensive exams at the end of this month and submitting the pre-proposal for my dissertation. I am interested in issues of access for students in postsecondary education, and implementing universal design to improve learning in distance education courses. At the end of the summer term, I'll have a break for a few weeks to see my son. Being away from him is the hardest part of being in Mississippi.

My technology background is pretty varied and mostly internet-related. My Dad bought a computer for my brother and I to work (and play!) on when I was still in elementary school. We used it right through high school for writing papers - it wasn't much more than a typewriter without ribbon to us then.

In college I discovered the internet, chatting in real-time for days on end using Internet Relay Chat. My very first day online, I sat in front of the terminal for 24 hours straight! I've been a member of a number of social networking communities since 1993. I have created and maintained several blogs over the years, although I have never been able to keep up with posting regularly. Hopefully that won't be a problem in this class! I look forward to talking with and learning from my colleagues in this course.