41: BLOC Party with Heidi Ranganathan, Elsbeth Seymour, and Sarah Natalie

In this episode, I talk to three of my favorite former educators who now have a successful career in learning and development. We talk about how they got there and what they've learned so far!

Heidi Ranganathan pivoted from bilingual classroom teacher to corporate instructional designer in 2021. She specializes in the alignment of organizational needs with learning objectives and partnering with stakeholders and subject matter experts to achieve the greatest organizational impact. A career transition is possible AND remember that you are the hero of your own story! You can read all the books, listen to many podcasts, and experiment with various authoring tools, but in the end it is how you take action, reflect, and keep moving forward to support your career transition.  Outside of work, Heidi enjoys traveling and cooking up new recipes from around the world with her family.

Elsbeth Seymour started her transition journey in eLearning around January of 2021, while working fulltime as a High School Special Education Resource teacher. Elsbeth was finishing up a Master of Educational Technology, and has added a certificate in Workforce Learning from Boise State and is slated to graduate in 2022. Elsbeth also attended Tim Slade's eLearning Designer's Academy before landing a local position as an Instructional Designer at a community credit union in June. From there, she has continued to learn and grow and now works as a contractor for Winmax Systems at Apple Inc.  With a diverse background, Elsbeth enjoys creating dynamic and visually pleasing eLearning that tells a story but is also accessible. 

Sarah Natalie taught preschool, 3rd grade, and 4th grade for 10 years before transitioning to corporate instructional Design in June 2021. As a teacher, she worked with students who were identified as gifted, specifically advocating for students from underrepresented groups to access gifted education programming. This work informed a lot of who Sarah is and what she believes about learning as a tool for social and professional mobility. As a teacher, and now as an L&D professional, a core value of Sarah's has always been advocating for and enabling others to gain access to something that might enrich their lives. To learn more about Sarah, connect with her on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahnatalie/) and take a look at her website (sarahnatalie.com)!

Heidi, Elsbeth, and Sarah's recommendations for people who want to make a career change to L&D:

Nyla Spooner's I'm New Here (https://www.nylalxd.com/blog/categories/i-m-new-here)Ruth Colvin Clark's Scenario-based e-Learning (https://www.amazon.com/Scenario-based-Learning-Evidence-Based-Guidelines-Workforce-ebook/dp/B00AM1WE74)Ruth Colvin Clark and Chopeta Lyons' Graphics for Learning (https://www.amazon.com/Graphics-Learning-Guidelines-Designing-Evaluating/dp/0470547448)

Connect with Heidi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiekirby/ or on my website: www.heidikirby.com

Thanks for listening to the BLOC!

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiekirby/

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