While celebrating the 25th anniversary of our annual international fall conference and the idea of stories being a connecting element throughout all of our conference activities, we are creating a variety of opportunities for you to share your story and to hear the stories of others. We’re calling this initiative #WeAreOLC. Sherri Restauri decided to share the progression of her career – OLC style! She progressed from “little baby” Sherri Researcher, to Sherri Presenter, to Sherri Volunteer, and is currently serving as Sherri Conference Co-Chair at OLC Accelerate 2019! 

We Are OLC-25 Years in Reflection: What does it look like to be “a part of OLC”?
OLC has been a HUGE part of not just my professional life, sure, but also my personal life. Traveling to the many incredible locations for OLC Innovate and Accelerate (sometimes with family), presenting and monthly planning meetings with my OLC ops and steering committee teammates, all have provided me with the wonderful opportunities for us to see and explore new cities, make new professional connections and meet up with colleagues year after year, all while building up my knowledge in the field of digital learning, as well as strengthening my own leadership skills as I served in various volunteer roles for the OLC organization.

HOW CAN YOU CONTRIBUTE?

We know that we would not be where we are today were it not for your contributions over the last 25 years. With this in mind, we first invite you to share your own OLC narratives. You can join in our quest to story the past (so that we can better prepare for the future) by submitting one or more of the following to this GOOGLE FORM:

Share a visual memory

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and we encourage you to help us collect memories from the past. Scour your archives for photos, videos, documents, or other resources that tell a story. We’ll share them with the OLC community through our social media channels as our way of saying “thanks for being a part of the OLC”.(Remember, we’re hoping to build a history of the OLC for the last 25 years)

Share your story

We want to highlight you and your work or contributions to making OLC what it is today. Create a blog post, a twitter post, etc. that we can share with the other members of our community. Here are a few prompts to get you started.

• How did you first get involved with the OLC?
• 25 years (then and now): What kinds of technology were you using 25 years ago and what technology do you engage with now?
• What is one of your favorite OLC experiences?
• Who composes your OLC community (i.e. the people you have met along the way and always enjoy seeing)? Tell a story that shares about your relationship.
• How do you support inclusion, diversity, equity, and advocacy in your teaching and learning and how has this evolved in the past 25 years?

We hope that you join us by following along with the series, as we articulate our shared commitment to a more inclusive, equitable, and humanizing OLC through engaging in individual and collective storytelling. Thank you for sharing your stories with us and for being an important part of our community. #WeAreOLC.

Sherri Restauri, Coastal Carolina University (OLC Accelerate 2019 Conference Co-Chair)