P Starr’s Crib

This past Wednesday, October 13th 2010, the Graduate Student Association (GSA) was received by President and Mrs. Starr at their home, the Allbritton House, in the heart of the Baylor Campus. All GSA Program Representatives and Alternates were invited to this event. There were food and drinks provided, but the thing that impressed us the most was the warm welcoming reception of both of our hosts. President Starr and Mrs. Starr are known for their warmth and they couldn’t have been nicer to us. Among the guests were Dr. Lyon (Dean of the Graduate School), Dr. Jackson (VP for Student Life), Dr. Scott (associate vice president for Student Life), and Dr. Scales (Associate Dean of Graduate and Professional Studies and GSA Advisor).

To Blog or To Blog…not even a question…

How long has it been since I have posted something here? A while right? However it is not like I haven’t been thinking about bloggable subjects. Even this post has been drafted a while ago…i just have not posted it. Surprisingly, the though of blogging about a subject has been in my mind A LOT, I see/read something and the first thought is: “I should blog about that,” but I end up not doing it. It is not like I don’t have the time. Technically speaking I do have more time since I am done with my classes and now I am “only” working on my dissertation proposal, but still…blogging seems to be such a cumbersome activity…Especially since I have recently adopted twitter for how convenient it is (I tweet from my phone often and I am almost breaking the 1,000 tweet mark). However, I have been thinking a lot about the benefits of blogging. For instance, I now don’t have to write any more papers for class (for grade), I am not required to read any more books so what am I going to do with myself if not force myself to write something that is thoughtful and meaningful? I can’t tweet that! So blogging is the way! From now on (and I know this should have started a while ago) I will reflect about my dissertation readings, fun readings, and other fun mind growing activities that I partake on a regular basis. I will also be fully redoing this blog site, and by that I mean that my online identity will be completely be overhauled. I plan on combining both my portfolio website with my blog, and adding other pages, and all of those will be located at the domain that I already own: addysdesigns.com. This might be a lot of work, and maybe this will only be up by next year, but I am very excited about it.

Protected: A weekend at the Lake

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

The Latest “Thangs” – 7.15.10

EDC5370: I am so excited to write this blog post not because I have so many fun things to tell, but also because I am composing this message sitting one a VERY comfy chair at Panera Bread with my dear EDC5370. We are wrapping up our second week of classes, and we decided to bring our work day to a different setting. On their work day my students should talk about their group projects with their partners, they should use collaborative tools such as google docs and google waves to add their notes and thought processes (which they share with me – of course) and also they can use this time to elaborate on their blog posts (they are required to submit 3 posts per week). If you are interested in reading my student’s posts you are more than welcome to! Our address is http://courseblogs.atlhub.net/edc5370/ or you can follow us on twitter by looking for the #edc5370 tag.

7.16 edit – I forgot to mentioned that when I was entering Panera I saw a girl wearing a shirt with my newest logo design. I created the logo for the Nobody’s Fool campaign from the Central Texas Planned Parenthood. If you want to check it out, know more about that program, or register your kids please click HERE.  My dear friend Sarah Lake is the director of that program, and what they do is a great way to educate kids about their growth and sexuality while promoting abstinence and dialogue between the kids and parents. You should definitely check it out and spread the word.

NMFS: Since this is a very odd place to meet I will be gathering some video testimonials with my nifty iPod nano (that I have acquired by participating at the New Media Faculty Seminar this past Spring). Also, it is very interesting to read my student’s posts since some of the readings are also some of the readings discussed at the NMFS. Please take a look at them and comment if you ave some time! If you want to take a look at the blog posts from the faculty and staff that participated on the NMFS click HERE. Here are the testimonials I got from my students:

NMC: On another note: I’M FAMOUS! Check out the updated online program for the NMC Summer Conference that was held in Anaheim, CA last June…I’m listed as a presenter for the first time…YAY for newbies! If you want to check it out click here. The amazing thing about the experience was not only that I got to present at the conference, but that the Baylor Graduate School funded my travel costs. The Baylor Graduate School has a program that funds graduate student travel expenses if you are going to a professional conference, if you are presenting, and if you are representing Baylor. If you are interested in find more information about it you can click HERE. One of the requirements is for you to submit a document that shows them how you have benefited from the experience. You can read how I benefited from that experience in this Report.

New Student Orientation: Planning for the New Graduate Student Orientation are going great. The schedule is pretty much already set and we are working on getting all of the plans into practice in August 18th 2010. Some of our speakers will be Judge Ken Starr, Baylor University President, Dr. Elizabeth Davis, BU Provost, Dr. Kevin Jackson, Vice President for Student Life, Dr. Burt Burleson, University Chaplain. It will be a blast! If you want more information about it click HERE. If you want more information about the Baylor Graduate School or the Graduate Student Association just follow the links and learn about what we are all about

ATL: Yesterday we had our weekly graduate fellows from the Academy of Teaching and Learning meeting, and on that meeting we discussed some of our current projects and future projects. One of them in particular is very exciting to share. The idea is to develop and create a incubator classroom at Baylor. While the idea of implementing something like this into an university environment is not new. However, the idea of using this environment that promotes creativity and innovation and do a project that included some kind of measurement of interest and creativity would be very neat. I am looking forward to having an environment like that at Baylor, but while it is NOT available we can just wonder around and watch youtube videos about this stuff at other universities:

So…Later on I got home and was talking to my mom about the class and it came to my mind that the reason why I can stay in Waco and NOT be homesick to the point that it would bother my studies is because of technology. For instance, I speak to my mom via skype, but because I have a very nerdy/nifty set up in my apartment it feels like I am telepresencing her here. Check out this picture below to take a look at my set up and my awesome mom What a blessing!

EDC5370 – Day 4

Hello Peeps, here is a copy of the powerpoint presentation that was used in class today. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about today’s class please tweet them, or blog about them.

Here is a wordle comparison between Engelbart’s Augmenting Human Intellect and Licklider’s Man-Computer Symbiosis:

EDC5370 – Day 3

Hello All, I hope that you enjoyed today’s class and today’s readings. If you want to check the presentation file out you can just check it out here

View this document on Scribd

Once again, the presentation was created with google docs, and it allows for easy sharing and easy exporting/embedding into other sources. Don’t forget to let me know/share with me the collaborative file for your group project. Also, try to get started on your blog posts! The link for the Vennevar Bush article is here, the youtube video that we watched is this one:

and the other links are here:

• Podcast
• Blog
• Teaching Matters
• More

What I forgot to add in class is that in the New Media Faculty seminar we discussed the Vennevar Bush article. If you decide to mention it in your own reflection, please add the tag that is listed on the last slide of the class presentation so that faculty members can also have access to your reflections

Are you a poop stepper?

So…the other day I was leaving work, and just as I stepped foot outside my office I grabbed my phone and checked if anyone had called me. No one had . Then, instead of putting my amazing iPhone away I decided to wonder around my apps and see what I could play with while walking back home. First stop: FACEBOOK APP. I wanted to see if there were new notifications for me, new messages, new ANYTHING! But NO!, once again I was disappointed and still craving for some entertainment. I decided then to plug in my headphones and turn my iPod on so that the quest to find something amusing on my iPhone could continue, but now with a soundtrack. The music started playing (with the setting set on shuffle – as always), but I came to the realization that although I have about 50 different apps on my phone NONE of them were serving a purpose at that time. I decided that my next step was to download something new from the app store. Given that I had just preached to my EDC5370 students about blogging, I decided to install the wordpress app. What could be better than walking around AND blogging at the same time, right? But right at that time I just baaarely looked up (it was God’s grace…I tell you) and I dodged a pretty big pile of dog poop! The thoughts in my head then transitioned from “what should I do on my phone on my way home” to “what the heck am I doing that I am not paying attention to the surface that I am about to step on while I walk home” and at that moment I also wondered how many other people have not have God’s grace showered upon them and did not dodge the poops in front of them in time. I thought about blogging about it but since I was so busy with other stuff I stored in my mind as a low priority thing…UNTIL…well…until last night, right? Something memorable HAD to happen for me to actually retrieve a low priority “future blog idea” from my head and that incident happened right after I got out of karaoke. If you know me, you know that I am a karaoke fan. Last night, such as any other Wednesday night, I met my friends at karaoke. I had a blast! I actually got to physically socialize with people (because I DO spend a lot of time in front of a computer..so sometimes is nice to interact with REAL humans), and when I was leaving the karaoke place the same thing that happened to me when I was leaving work happened. I checked my phone to see if anyone had called (one call this time, but it was too late to call back), then Facebook (nothing new then), and then BAM! I step on a HUUUUUUGE puddle of mud…I mean, full foot, about a foot deep into fresh watery nasty YUCK! mud. I was very upset, as you might imagine, but I wasn’t upset about the place where I was at the amount of craters on the dirty ground which became puddles of mud, and which I stepped on. NO, I was upset at myself! I was upset at my iPhone! I was upset with my addiction to little tiny Apple manufactured gadgets that grab you by your soul and make you attached emotionally to them! I was upset that this tiny little gadget, while providing me with so much connectivity and made me feel loved (when I had calls, text messages, and Facebook notifications) was causing me to detached myself with the world around me and step on muddy puddles, dog poop, and who knows whatever else I have been stepping on…These things are so ubiquitous that I ask myself, and you…my blog post reader: ARE YOU A POOP STEPPER? Have you also been distracted by these gadgets to the point that they caused you to trip on the streets, step on the people walking in front of you, cross the street when there is a car coming your way? Well, I hope you are not, but if you have please COMMENT and tell me your story