Starting your First Blog for Education

It's not the first time I've read Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts by Will Richardson and it probably won't be the last. I've seen the chapter titles before and the ideas are familiar, but with this reading new ideas have come to my mind. For example, I realized how much I enjoy learning and discovering new concepts.

I also was struck by the idea that the best way to get involved in blogging is reading other blogs. So I hope to be an example for this class and find and read blogs that interest me. Then I will add my comments and organize my life so that I access these blogs on a regular basis.

So far I've started four blogs for the past several years each with a different purpose. First was a personal one (denvygail.blogspot.com) as an experiment to report what I do and think. It hasn't had a great past but I hope it's future will be better.

The next was my professional one that I use for this class, related classes and for any thoughts about technology. It's called Digital Inklings.

In the undergraduate technology class each student creates a blog to track the lessons, programs and what they have learned each week. So a third blog connects to this process at fourtwentyoners.

Finally I realized from my siblings emails and questions about our past and life as children that a better way of communications these stories would be through a blog. My audience is not into blogging so this failed miserably so far. I called it Binders and Draft Horses.

Hindsight tells me that I could have created one general blog and used tags. I guess that a part of trying something, making mistakes and life-long learning.

The most difficult step of almost any project is the first step, in this case coming up with a purpose for a blog and hence a name or title. That's your first challenge. Good luck!

Everyone Needs a Smartphone

A comment that hit home while reads comps this week is that many students, typically teenagers, have smart phones which also serve as cameras, camcorders, gaming machines, calculators, music players, pictures albums, Internet connections as well as texting and email devices. Face it, it is their entire life wrapped up in one device. The power of this is both amazing and frustrating. They have the world as they know it or create it at their finger tips at all times. It is both a beautiful world and a scary world.

When I was young, and that's a bit ago, it is said that one learned about sex behind the barn. now there is no barn and we marginally have something we call sex education in the schools. Where do students now learn about the proper use of smart phones or other electronic devices? It must be behind the virtual barn because we prohibit the use of phones in the classrooms instead of teaching the proper use of them. Turn on the phones and get connected with them.

Besides technology is leaping forward faster than ever with new options and features. I have seen QR code bars on some products but had no idea what they could do. Skip typing the URL of a website or YouTube video. Just snap a picture on it on your smart phone which has a QR decoder program and up comes the site encoded site. This code could be on the back of a calling card or on a 75-foot billboard on the side of a building or embedded in a art project or on the side of a box with a consumer product.

Bring on the smart phone. By the way, I haven't had a cell phone until 5 months ago and I just buy a couple minutes a month as I need them. I guess I need a smart phone. With Internet and camera and QR decoder!

When it doesn't rain, it's awesome

There's so much to learn and it comes from such interesting corners. For example, three hours of PowerPoint presentations seemed a bit overwhelming, but the feedback has indicated that the information was useful and interesting. And I agree but it was a little like eating all the meals for one day at breakfast time.

Along with others I learned a great deal about what makes a PowerPoint presentation effective: not too many words, not distracting images; but stimulating technology and good visual design.

May I also say that this class has been very productive and I thank the students for that.

Oh, by the way, I read all the blogs today, a day with more sunshine than rain, a day with some time in the yard, a day that felt like a good one. Thank you.

When it rains it snows

The quote is more actually when it rains it pours, which may apply to this week technologically but the "snows" part comes from the fact that the Midwest USA has been hit hard with big cold snows this past week and two days ago the daffodils in Oregon were capped with snow.

Several days ago I was working in the computer lab-classroom when a group of individuals came in and did a presentation. I, the mouse, in the corner gave the impression of ignoring while actually absorbing all that I could take in. The talk was about interactive art and design which included some far-off stuff. A followup question asked if HTML5 was the way of the future and if current web design technology would fall by the wayside. HTML5? What the heck is that?

So I did my research (that's a big word for a small act) and discovered a whole new set of powerful tags and are available in HTML5 and still marginally useless because most browsers don't recognize them. Expect Chrome and so I dug Chrome out of the dock and try out some new codes. What I've learned is that there is an awful lot to learn and that this new tags certainly complement the interactive web design.

Also this week several professors have come as candidates for a technology position in COE and with them came ideas and skills that I have not tried. There is always so much to learn in technology. So with the gathered URLs from the presentations of these candidates and the art presentations, I will be busy for some time to come. For now, the interest is in HTML5.

Forty four years later

Some of your blogs have reminded me of my feelings the first time I took a computer class in the spring of '67. I was, and probably still am very introvert, and I knew no one in this class of about 200. The room where we punched the holes in the cards was small with very little equipment and the waiting line was always long. Many of these classmates, almost exclusively boys, were really hyped about computers and I was there to satisfy a small curiosity. I received, a low grade for this one-credit undergraduate class while I was a graduate student in mathematics at the University of Wyoming. The computer was a Philco 2000 and sat in a room behind a small window where a student would accept my stack of punched cards and a day later hand me a printout that typically demonstrated that I had a lot to learn yet. I was deadly afraid that I'd never understand computers.

There is one really great plus to being old; you can look back and see how things can turn out very differently than what one expects. In forty-four years you too will look back at some of your fears and concerns and realize how small they then seem. I suspect in 44 years, at the age of 110, I will reflect on some major changes of the years. Meanwhile, I will dwell on the simple things of blogging in education, and "how do I program iPads?"

A Great Week for CSE694

Life is good! Well, there are exceptions like trying to add minutes to the cell phone that I finally acquired for the first time two months ago. Thanks to my wife's patience, they took our money and I'm still watching the phone for the additional minutes.

But like I said, "Life is good!" My wife came home a day early from a business trip and most of you wrapped up your final reflective blog. Those completed from where I sit, and it is a rather comfortable recliner with the laptop on my, well, lap, are: Alyssa, Heather, Jan, Melanie, Nicole, Patricia, Ronnie, Russ, Sheryl, Tori and William; 11 out of 18. One blog from finishing are three: George, Mary and Sabrina. That leaves a mere four with a little to do yet. Good luck, I'll get watching and reading until the last thought is blogged.

Add to the list of good things this week the reading of your blogs and enjoying the new insights. I've heard say that one of the benefits of working with graduate students is all the research they do for the instructors. Thanks.

Getting closure in CSE694

If a three-credit course takes ten weeks, then we can assume that a one-credit course will take three and one-third weeks which will be tomorrow, Tuesday, late morning. Of course, grades aren't due until the end of the term, so there's leeway unless you want closure and the ability to move on to other courses or activities.

Looking at the blogs today it appears as if about one-third of you are finished (Jan, Nicole, Russ, Sheryl and William). Another few only need to write a final reflection (Alyssa, Heather, Mary, Patricia and Tori). The remaining are typically missing a blog on features, management, marketing and a final reflection.

Those are the numbers and numbers seldom tell the entire story. As this course evolves over time both through my research into blogging and your research and discoveries, the course becomes more sophisticated and refined. As a team working to refine the use of blogs in education, you have advanced the use of blogs greatly. I'm very excited about those of you who have attempted all the expectations, adventured far beyond the guidelines and finally have developed blogs for your educational purposes.

As questions or insights come to you, add them to your blog and we'll let this course become a life-long learning experience.