Dr. Julie Jensen is a recent retiree after serving 28 years in public education, ending her career as an Instructional Technology Specialist for the Lee’s Summit R-7 School District. As a responsive educator, Dr. Jensen has been able to roll with the quick changes in instructional technology to maintain her passion for authentic educational programs that prepare students for success.
Early in her career, Julie was a participant in the eMINTS grant (enhancing Missouri’s Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies) which was a job-embedded professional development to help schools meet the demands of digital-age teaching and learning with an emphasis on Differentiated Instruction. In 2004, Dr. Jensen left the classroom to become an Instructional Technology Specialist. As part of the small team, led by Dr. Amy Gates, they began the first steps to eventually offer full-semester online learning courses for LSR-7 students in 2007.
Over the years, Dr. Jensen and the ITS team played a valuable role in the evolution of blended and online learning which led to the successful deployment of eLearning for K-12 students during the 2020 pandemic. The ITS team of four members supported over 2,000 district educators and 18,000 students with deploying online instruction during this spontaneous transformation in education. Looking forward to the future, Dr. Jensen is motivated to support K-12 educators by creating robust learning platforms as well as offering support with the instructional challenges that naturally come with this digital shift.