Author: Shawn

What a semester it has been! I am so thankful that we have reached the end of it for many reasons. I have enjoyed the students I have had this semester and will see a few of them again next (some for next level courses, others as repeats). As a student, it has been difficult to accomplish everything I wanted to accomplish in a timely manner. This has caused me more anguis that anything and more than likely helped me to decide that I am simply not ready for the Ed.D program. Instead, I will continue to take classes here and there and possibly add another Master’s and a few certificates along the way.

Why the sudden change? Well, I have decided that it would be best to put my efforts into  helping move our IT Department forward in what we are offering as far as classes and certificates to give our students a better range of courses that are currently available. In the process, I must further educate myself and continue to search out grants to help pay for the new curriculum.

Beginning this fall, we will be offering an Introduction to Geographical Information Systems. This course, which has a pending grant, will introduce students to a variety of materials including GPS. I am using the GPS modules to introduce more Service Learning initiatives for the college and is partly behind the grant I am seeking. We will be using a Garmin eTrex Venture HC to map the various trails, facilities and several other places of interest around Grayson Lake. There will be more to following on this later.

So for everyone that is still reading this, good luck for a wonderful end of semester and FABULOUS summer! I’ll be posting here from time to time and keeping everyone informed of what is going on in my neck of the woods. Who would have thought that this is something I would actually want to keep up with?

What can I say? I have succumbed to the masses and over the last few weeks have been adding gadgets to my collection… For example, I have been looking for quite some time for some type of MP3 device so that I can listen to music, books or anything else that may cross my mind. A great debate has occurred over the past several months over what to get, a zune because of price and capacity, an iPod Nano for its price, an iPod Touch for its applications and WIFI capability or an iPhone itself which would combine everything together — but ultimately give me a monthly fee.

After 3 months of researching, reading reviews and asking opinions I finally made a decision and price points at which I would buy each of the above. I found knock-offs and cheaper models, but quickly ruled them out. Sometimes quality counts and with this gadget, it definitely does. After searching high and low, I finally found an iPod Touch (1st generation) below my price point and struck quickly.

A side effect of the iPod touch is that I am wanting to learn more about programming an iPhone. Needless to say, installing Snow Leopard on a PC is not the easiest task to accomplish. This too will be a separate post. A spoiler could be for those who care to look for “Hackintosh”.

Next I have been working on a grant application to implement Service Learning within the class room while also implementing Web 2.0. It was almost as if the grant has been written for me due to the classes and timing of this grant. It has also taken up so much of my time. Needless to say, this has proven to be a difficult project, but I feel it could also revitalize not just our Information Technology department, but others due to the cross curricular nature of the technology I want to use. A short synopsis of the project is that I will have students creating Blogs, WIKIs, Facebook groups and surveys in order to supplement the use of Handheld GPS Units in a Service Learning environment. This project has led me to purchase one of the handhelds so that I could get used to the product before the class this Fall. The handheld unit we will be using is a Garmin eTrex HC.

Finally, at the present moment, I am using an ASUS EEE PC Netbook. I did not actually purchase this myself, but instead borrowed it from the department. It may be used for the “Hackintosh” project and if the grant is not funded, my GIS class. All in all, it is not a bad contraption for those wanting the ultimate in mobility. I am able to complete posts that have neeeded to already have been done and check various internet sites. A quick opinion on this particular model is that the keys are small and somewhat causing my hands to cramp up. Yet another post on its way for this.

I’ll add more later on separate posts, as each of these topics deserve, but wanted to leave a post for those who are thinking about the same technologies as I am. Don’t think twice — they are all worth it!!

In one of my classes, I was asked to talk about what our thoughts are about where we stand educationally regarding technology and whether or not we are really preparing students for dealing with the technological society of tomorrow. In a way, this will be very subjective depending on where an individual is, whether or not they are an educator and even whether or not they themselves are technologically competent. So, for me, this will be an interesting question.

Educationally speaking, I think we are still behind more countries around the world than we are in front of — which is extremely sad in my opinion. I believe we have been the leaders for so long that it has come to the point we no longer remember what it took to get there. I recently watched a video (2 Million Minutes) and it described what students do in other countries to receive their education. We take it for granted that we allow EVERY student to receive an education.I think it is because of these our students do not really “work” for it anymore. Instead, they show up because they have to, not really striving or doing the most of what they can accomplish.

In some countries, students have to dodge bullets just to go to school. Others, must complete various testing and score high enough to keep in school. Our students are entitled to an education. We are becoming an entitlement society more and more. This, for me, is one of my greatest fears. If we relax too much, what will become of this great country of ours?

Are we preparing our students to enter into this technological society? I can speak for others, but I can speak for myself. I am trying my best! I set high standards for my students and try to expose them to more and more technology. Unfortunately, but the time they get to me, they have already been failed. I am teaching them skills that should have been taught many years before I have them in class.

Where, or possibly better asked, how does this happen in a country as blessed as we are? I think it begins with how we operate as a society. We are who we are and that should be enough. Unfortunately, it is not anymore. Projections have shown that in order for us to keep up with the rest of the world we are going to need to graduate more and more people within Sciences, Math and Engineering segments.

Our educators need to be retrained so that it begins as soon as a student enters school. Our parents need to be trained so that mediocre school work is not acceptable. We need to start from ground zero to implement these changes and quickly before another generation is lost to the entitlement era.

I am adding a linkto a portion of the documentary “2 Million Minutes”. I would highly recommend everyone look at this, it is scary to see where we stand.

YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niU1E3SSTAM

As a relatively new college professor, I have had a lot of firsts this year. Last semester I had a student email when he was contemplating suicide and a little later in the year I was nominated for an exceptional teaching recognition. This semester, I have had several students enter my classes that are registered with disabled student services. While this is not unusual (I had some last semester also), it has been a bit different. I do not want to go into details to protect the innocent, but I have found that college professors need more training on how to deal with the various disabilities — some of which, as they are in my case, can be extreme in nature.

Now, I don’t want this to come across as complaining, because in no way am I, but it does go to show that as an educator, sometimes we are to be stretched to our limits and in certain times, beyond these limits. This has happened this semester as well, but not for any of the aforementioned reasons. Last semester I had the great fortune of teaching many wonderful students (somewhere around 180) and enjoyed it greatly. I enjoyed it so much, that I wanted to teach an advanced class and have several of the students return. I do not know that this is normal, but for me, it was wonderful as I was able to teach several of my “favorite” students. I was able to handpick students due to the timing of when the class was added, again not normal.

Let’s fast forward to this semester. I have had a great time with the students in the class, and in several instances seeing them blossom into great learners. It has been a great class. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago, one of my students was killed in a terrible accident. She was nineteen and full of life — finally choosing a career, making some important decisions and just an all-around AWESOME young lady. Her birthday was this past Monday. Needless to say, this class was a close-knit group and has taken this extremely hard. I have taken it hard. We each have tried to deal with it, and at times, it just hasn’t seemed possible.

So, now we get to the relevance of how this might somehow deal with technology. A group on facebook was created by a friend in the student’s memory, email has been used to spread the news after the accident, the local news had a comment section enabled directly after the accident and many students were notified by text. This did make my job so much easier in that I did not have to be the first one to notify the students in my class.

In addition to everything that has went on, my class has decided to unite and do something to help the family. You see, the family does not have the money to pay for the funeral or marker for the grave. At the present time the details have not been completed, but it will be a fundraiser of some kind.

There is not a lot more I can say about this subject, but I do think I have learned so much from this experience. I would not wish this experience on anyone, but I can say I am a better educator and person for having known Britt.

Britt, you are gone, but not forgotten.