Missing the Boat?

I just wonder if I'm wandering around in my own little boat, missing the big picture of the grad school experience.

I sent out an email to the 7 people who are taking the same two classes I'm taking a couple of weeks after school started. I suggested we might want to exchange contact information, in case we wanted to discuss things pertinent to one class or the other. I included my IM info, as well as email and Twitter. I guess I honestly thought we would create some kind of network since we are all distance students.

Of the seven, two replied. One said, "Great idea!" but didn't give any contact info. The other provided contact information, and we've exchanged a couple of emails. I'm so accustomed to engaging with others through the 'Net that I'm surprised at the lack of response. Maybe it's just that the others don't want to add anything else to their undoubtedly already full plates. Maybe they don't live online like I do. Maybe I'm just sailing around all by myself.

When I see the interaction going on in other distance ed classes, though, I'm envious. I would really like to have some kind of interaction with my classmates, even if it's just an informal introduction and the occasional session of commiseration. I would love to be able to chat with them (and the professors?) someplace like TappedIn, to be able to get a sense of where we are and where we are going with the instruction. I just feel a bit isolated right now: wading through the pages of the text, completing the prescribed exercises, me and my laptop ("Fred"), alone in the big world of Education.

One of the courses is listing "discussions" as an element of the assignments for upcoming lessons. Hopefully I'll feel a bit less lonely, less like the "new kid" in a school where everyone knows everyone else except for me.

Oh well, back to sorting out ISD models and Flash tutorials. Come on, Fred, we've got work to do.
(Photo from leighblackall's Flickr photostream, accessed via Creative Commons)

Champing at the bit

The official start date for classes is Monday, the 27th, but one class has some lessons posted and I'm already at work. Well, my computer is at work...it took over an hour to install Adobe's CS3 Web Standard, and now I'm playing around while hoping my textbook arrives soon so I can really get started.

While I've got a minute to reflect, before the deluge of teaching and learning and living all hits on Monday, I'm trying not to feel frustration that two out of two courses are application specific. I guess I've gotten so accustomed to using 2.whatever and FOSS applications that I'm startled by professors insisting on grad students purchasing expensive mass-market software. At least I don't have to purchase MS Office 2007 (but that's only because the text has a limited trial version included).

The degree I am seeking is in Instructional Design with an emphasis in Education. Is it realistic, in today's tightly-budgeted schools, for teachers to expect to teach web design using high-end software when NVU would serve the same purpose? Is it essential that my students know the specific application, or should they learn the principles which underlie the application?

I'm not advocating a return to DOS, don't get me wrong. I'm just wondering ... am I as a student being asked to learn what my teachers are familiar with? Do I make that same mistake decision with my own students as a teacher? Am I teaching from my world rather than to their world?

Then, too, I was startled that both courses will require me to keep a physical notebook and mail it to the professors at the end of the semester. My first reaction was, "What?!?!?! In this era of instant communication, twittering, blogs, wikis, podcasts, you want me to keep a notebook?"

I'm still trying to puzzle my way through this notebook requirement, as I create a wiki for my students to use as their major class resource. They will work collaboratively, true, but they will also have responsibilities to discuss what they are working on, I can track who has contributed what, and we will have an organic work which we can share with others. They will have a resource which they can access again and again as they move on in their education, and continue to contribute to it for the benefit of other students who will follow them. I guess the oddest part for me is that I will spend time creating a resource for myself which I will then send off, perhaps never to be seen again. It just feels odd, that's all.

Have I been a teacher too long, and forgotten how to be a student?

Words of Wisdom

Periodically, take stock of what you have learned....how far you have come. When you look behind you, you should be surprised how far back you started and how steep this path may have been. In that sense, the trail in front of you, looks only half as steep and not near so far. -Elderbob in a Webheads post

Such a timely bit of advice. I'm feeling so nervous about going back to school. Just dealing with getting registered was enough to add to my already gray hair. Then there's the price of text books...they were expensive back when my dinosaur and I were working on a B.A., but goodness gracious!

I need to keep Elderbob's words in mind as I move through this whole process. Perhaps I'll print them out and post them on my desk at home.

Thanks, Bob!

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