Month: November 2011

Thanksgiving was a feast. Family gathered and shared with each other the blessings of the holiday. Christmas is just around the corner and the holiday shopping has already begun. The stores are full of people, some pushing and shoving to get what they can. The news told us the stories of Black Friday, where people forgot the meaning of the word “peace.” Not all people, of course. We are desperate American shoppers trying to find things that our budget can tolerate, cost wise.

I am not a shopper. I give to the different charities that so desperately need help and wonder how much they are actually giving to the people needing it. The Northwest Holiday food drive will be in the Redmond Town Center on Saturday. When I saw their warehouse stacked with pallets of food (on the news), I wondered if all that food goes to the seniors and needy families like it is suppose to.

In Olympia the politicians meet to decide how many people will not get the money they so desperately need to survive. The protesters are in full force; but their voices will not be heard. The cuts will be made and the needy will suffer once again, this Holiday Season. I think some people think I am a “bleeding heart” liberal. I think I am just a mother who sees children and parents suffering because of something they have no control over, the economy. Among the deeper cuts proposed are cuts to educational institutions in this state. How sad. At what point are students willing to protest and why do they always seem to turn violent with the policing authories winning?

This weekend, I watched in horror, for the third time, at the pepper spraying of peaceful University of CA-Davis students  and donated to the TV station willing to speak out against the policing agency responsible. How can any parent or teacher or professor watch that incident and not respond? It was a peaceful demonstration and well within the rights of the students protesting, per the U.S. Constitution. I could not believe what I was seeing. The students were chanting “shame on you” and showing the world once again the type of brutality we are capable of. No…these students are not children; but my heart went out to them just the same.

As I am building the modules for Chapter 2, I have taken the time to review this incident. I remember when these types of incidents happened during the Nixon Administration. The thought came to mind, “…those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” These words were spoken by Winston Churchill and George Sanayana.”  The full quote from The Life of Reason (1905-1906) by George Santayana is:

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement; and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

I think we all should ponder those words as we re-think the incident at Davis and what it really means for all of us. It is very hard for me to understand the brutality of the police using military grade pepper spray on students. I think the students said it best, “..the whole world is watching you!.” The next video was my reaction as well, I take my hat off to this ex-Marine for telling it like it was.

I have come from a military family. Both my step-brother, my brother and my husband (a U.S. Marine and eventually U.S. Army Officer) were Vietnam veterans. Two of my children served during Desert Storm. They swore an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution. The protesting students at UC-Davis did not have guns, they had no weapons, they held no rocks. They simply sat in peaceful protest exercising their rights as American citizens. I have only one comment, “…shame on you.” The comic strip author, of the comic strip Pogo,  Walt Kelly stated on Earth Day 1970, “…I have met the enemy and he is us.”

The Pogo cartoon might be telling us something about Wallstreet. Could it be…you can cheat just so much before you have to pay up?

Thanksgiving is just four days away. The picture, taken from this  Microsoft site, reminds me of all the turkeys on my table over the many years I have lived. This year I am going to be with family. It will be a long drive. We will spend two nights in a small trailer and drive home on Friday. There will be every kind of food, traditionally served, with the main focus on the turkey. All day those delicious smells will remind me of the millions of people who will not be sitting down to such a feast.

I made a call to my friend in Chimbote, Peru’s barrio on Saturday morning. Those Peruvians will not celebrate thanksgiving and no turkey with trimmings will arrive at their door. The poverty there is unbearable. In the news letter I receive this time of year, every year.  In them Padre Juan Davis writes, “…Two of our gang rehabilitation centers are now prevention centers for children, to help keep them out of the lifestyle of older family members. Since we believe that education is the key to getting out of poverty, it is the focus of our programs.” I am hoping to go there when I am well enough to travel to a country like Peru. I am hoping I will be able to teach in one capacity or another. Those are details to be worked out eventually.

Fr. Jack Davis and Sr. Peggy were the driving force behind my learning to teach. I taught religion and ethics to children in catholic parishes for many years. Fr. Jack let me fill in for his high school class when he had to be away, in Fargo, North Dakota. We got to know each other very well. He helped hide my children and gave me a place to stay that was protected (in a parish house in Minot, N.D.) until my divorce became final and the law would protect me against my batterer. There were few shelters at the time and they were not located in North Dakota. During the time I stayed in Minot, Fr. Davis was preparing for his mission to Peru. I spent many hours helping file and store much of his paper work. His legacy to me was moving and nudging me toward obtaining a university education, which I achieved a few years after he left the United States. He was the closest thing to a brother and mentor I ever had. He was and is an honorable man, unlike what we have been hearing about Catholic priests in the press for the past several years. Through Fr. Jack, I have met many men that are ethical and moral, while wearing that collar.

Yesterday, I began to load Bb Vista with my modules. Every suggestion I have made as far as what might help in the learning process online has been discarded. The content design is that of the person who might or might not use the site once it is completed. While I am creating the design that is being placed in the system, that too might be changed as well. The project is moving along though. I have my next meeting with Robin on Monday.

Since little of what I have learned in the certification program has been used…actually nothing, I am content to learn every aspect of the Bb Vista system. I know it is going away and a new system will be adopted by next Fall at BC. However, they are all a lot alike. The open source Learning Management Systems are simpler, but somethings are lost, while others are gained. I think Haiku will lend itself to what I want to do with it. I do not think I will finish my course, before the internship ends. Nevertheless, I do know how to go about building it. That was what I wanted to know.

I am beginning to see that any idea I might have had about obtaining an advising position is dead in the water. Chances are, obtaining a teaching position is equally questionable. Maybe the one reason older adults are even considered for a position is-when they are seen as “…a solution to the employers problem, states the author of a blog called, Retirementrevised. I think that is something worth working on. I once thought I could not learn how to use Bb Vista in just three hours of training. Once I started using it, I realized it was not that difficult. In fact, it was not much different from creating my website on Google; where I have placed my ePortfolio.

The one thing I did not learn or do during my doctoral studies was…take a TA or teaching assistantship. I had most of my education paid for until my doctoral studies started. Then, I borrow the $15,000.00 which I have been paying on for the past fifteen years and will never pay off. It is over $55,000.00 now. I realize, I may never get another opportunity to finish my doctorate. Money was and is the biggest challenge; but, I could learn the skills I need to teach. I am currently doing that. My professor once told me, “…it is not the getting there that counts…it is the journey.” I think I see the wisdom in those words. Learning is a process and a journey and maybe we never really arrive at the destination.

With renewed faith that some spirit or force just beyond my ability to comprehend is moving me toward a destination, I keep plugging away at the internship…no matter what is happening in the process. I know that there will be a good end in sight. Once I have those skills of building a course and can eventually teach, there may be a purpose to it all.

Where did my time go? I have had an interesting week after my meeting with Charlene on Wednesday. I think it depicts where I am with this project. I was hoping to have completed Module 3 by now and I am still working on the Syllabus!  Thanksgiving is knocking at the door and everything I thought I knew at work is changing. Pressure is pushing me toward working as quickly as I can; but still I am falling behind. I have most of the course worked out; but still need information from Charlene, who is very busy, to push further. She wants only a discussion place and a place to post the lessons for the week (online modules). Most of what her class is about is the “Classroom.” This is her choice and she is free to make them, because she is far more aware of her students needs than I am,since I have not taught her class. I don’t necessarily agree with her on some issues (althought she is the expert); so I am building my own curriculum and finding my own LMS to put it in. Just another frustration!

I have found a new place for my own course called “Haiku.”  I think it will work well with my ideas of how a hybrid I design would be taught with very limited classroom time. Most of my ideas have come from the experts in the field of online teaching. I spent one year taking 3 credits each quarter.  However, I read far beyond what was being offered and explored every thing I could get my hands on. So, I am building my course, while I working on Charlene’s. Robin is less involved in what I am doing when it comes to content. Charlene is becoming more involved since it is her course design with some feedback from me. I have a great respect for her thinking.

While I am doing this work for Charlene and during this internship, I am expected to look for positions that are full-time. There are a few that I would consider.  The question is, will they consider me? The more involved I get with the new position I am working in, in advising, the more I see that position as a type of teaching position.  I intend to apply for it!  What I am doing now is kind of wasting of my degrees (so whats new here). I like what I see in the advising field so far.  I especially like the person that is the head of that area. She was a U.S. Army family member and we have that experience in common. I truly like her style so far. I know she is someone I would trust.

My dear friend of some almost 10 years came back from Maryland. We had some “girl time” on Saturday. She dropped out of her masters program and has too little money to stay in the matured person apartment she is living in.  She wants to go live with her son, but is beginning to see that will not work out as well as she had hoped. Of course, I want her to stay in this area. But, her money is too tight for her liking, since they raised her rent, but her income is the same She is also paying back her student loans! She can no longer work. Her arthritis is getting too bad, among other things.

My oldest daughter graduated from college in October 2011, after some 12 years of going to school. She graduated with honors from Belmont Abbey College. She served in the U.S. Army during Desert Storm and had accumulated benefits.  However, going to a private catholic college was expensive and now her student loans are due.  She makes slightly above minimum wage at Lowe’s in North Carolina and doesn’t have the resources to pay them back. Her hours were cut to part-time due to the economy. Her son is living with her, he is 17. Unfortunately, he isn’t as motivated as his sister to get started on a career after high school. He has been looking for a job for two years and still hasn’t found one.

Both my daughter and I believe in college as a way to improve oneself and one’s chances for employment.  That doesn’t seem to have worked for either of us in this economy (or before in my case, since I was over 45 when I hit the job market). I borrowed $15,000 dollars for my doctoral studies and now owe $55,000, which has been paid on since 1995. I still owe $55,000 or slightly over that amount. It will never be paid off. They can take it out of my social security checks when I stop paying on it. My oldest daughter is getting closer to 50 years old and I fear she will lose her home, if she doesn’t find a better paying job.  There is no “bail out” for students…no matter the age.

The three videos below are worth the time it takes to watch them (about 15 minutes for all three). Students of all ages are being squeezed by the government, banks and collection agencies.  I was told to take any job to pay off my debt by the collectors for the Department of Education. I did; but I found myself homeless more than once, when I did not have enough money to live on. Each time this happened to me, my confidence was shattered. It only takes a few nights sleeping in the cold and being homeless to get the picture. We are becoming a slave class to the government and bankers because we went to college or the university to better ourselves. This is the case whether we are 22-102 years of age. We are asked to pay these loans even when age discrimination blocks us from working, because we are older adults.

The beauty of fall is everywhere. I don’t remember the colors being as beautiful last year, as they are this year. I have enjoyed the sunny days and lack of rain, especially today.  The murky dark days of winter loom just beyond the horizon, as I look toward the ocean.  The image was taken from Microsoft Online and only the birch trees are missing in Washington country scenes.

I have not had much contact with my team and it is keeping me from moving forward with the curriculum design. The team is very busy with their courses and students so it is understandably. Right not I am dead in the water, so to speak. I am getting anxious because I only have so many weeks to finish the project. The design my chair person wants is more of a web enhanced hybrid course. She really loves to teach in the classroom; and I think moving beyond this type of hybrid is not what she wants to do. Since her students don’t want to pay the new parking fees that started this fall, she is trying. I give her A for effort!

I am meeting with my mentor on Monday. I did not meet with either Charlene or Robin last week and my work is on hold until I know what direction Charlene wants to go in and if she has accepted my proposals. I am hoping she will accept all of the suggestions. Since only one hour is online work, it remains to be seen how much she will want the students to do online. I am holding my breath.

I now know I can teach online. I know I can design a course. There are so many changes taking place at work at BC, I don’t know if I will ever be given that opportunity. Part of our enrollment department has now been moved to the advising department and a few people were laid off.  We are now a part of the advising department and working in the Welcome Center. I wonder if they are thinking about laying me off. My desire is to teach and hopefully they see I can do both. I know they (BC) has said they would not hire me, since I do not have classroom teaching experience. Does this mean my job in advising will soon be over? I can only hope that is not the case. My life is on hold for the moment. I do not know what direction they will move, except forward and onward!.

In the past every holiday…either my husband or I were laid off and without a job. Thanksgiving is quickly approaching and I wonder if we will have the money to buy a turkey. I dread the thought of Christmas.  This is usually the worst season for us. Every day off means we do not get paid. The bills keep coming; but the money stops. We usually try to give money to others at this time of year. I am wondering if I will have any for anyone. As always I have to depend on a higher power and the BC management.

This post is short. I really am hoping I will get through all of the designing. I did go to a session on Elluminate/Collaborate for Instructure Canvas and decided I like my Bb Vista site better.  I did not like the look and feel of Instructure Canvas and the level of difficulty was amazing. In Bb Vista I can change a few things to make the site look more inviting. In fact, I am beginning to think Bb Vista at BC is still a head and shoulders above anything on the market.  Each LMS has a few features; but none of the applications so far are easy and user friendly. The new applications do have a few more Web 2.0 features. I cannot understand why they are so difficult to use. Come guys…give me something I can really get behind and promote! I found the following blog and these are my thoughts to a “T.” I hope you have a chance to read the blog.

I am including a video of a LMS that I hope to check out this week. I need to figure out what it has to offer.