Happy three years to me at ACT!
When OpenEd was acquired three years ago by ACT inc, one of the first things a visiting executive told us was that we “Can’t fatten a pig by weighing it.” (Eg assessments are weighing it and Learning is how to fatten it). And that’s when I realized ACT was based in Iowa…
First at OpenEd as a lead curator+Math, then venturing into a product management role under the leadership of Test Development with OpenSALT, I took some time this weekend to reflect on how the past three years have shaped me and what’s ahead.
The same month ACT finished buying OpenEd, my family and I also moved into a new rental house in Los Gatos where OpenEd was located AND had our second child! So for my colleagues it was momentous because of a merger, for me May 2016 will always be a personal and professional “before/after” marker in life! It was a crazy month that took a couple months to recover from! Later OpenEd moved to downtown San Jose but was still within biking distance. As I started getting more involved in building OpenSALT, I eventually moved full time to that role in November of 2017. I had received an ACT title of Senior Manager for the OpenEd role in August… but it counts as same thing as what I’d been doing before.
OpenSALT and getting much more involved in CASE specification development has become a pretty major passion of mine since then. It’s amazing to think of the possibilities of the applications that will be and are being built based on open standards for sharing of information. Helping students+adults connect with college and jobs and certifications on a truly global scale is mind-boggling and I am honored to be a part of it all. If you look at my LinkedIn profile, going from math teacher to edtech company to software product management may not make sense, until you realize that my masters was in curriculum and instruction and I’m now able to shape the technical foundation of standards (competencies) themselves. I’m always trying to think ahead to how this software could be used in the classroom and at the district/state/federal level to help kids.
My family and I are now pretty firmly rooted in the Bay Area/San Jose and loving the variety of nature trails and amazing events available to us.
What’s next?
I keep thinking about furthering my education, but right now personal priorities overrule anything professional. I’m quite happy in my current role although I know I need to keep learning more about best practices for software development, as well as content management guidelines and help make OpenSALT best suited for a variety of needs — a true balancing act! I also want to do more with open badges and progress CLR. Every day I’m challenged, having fun, and working with a great group of people! I hope to stay at ACT as long as I’m learning and contributing to the adoption of the ACT Holistic Framework and CASE as an added bonus!
