Sophia!

A Virtual Classroom…

Selfishly I wanted to do a blog this class that featured my beautiful daughter.  My daughter was born December 3, 2011.  I thought Professor Ackerman was crazy for convincing me to take a class that start just a few weeks after she joined our family.  Or, maybe I was crazy for letting her talk me into it…

I thought I had definitely made a mistake the first week trying to manage a newborn and a class.  I wasn’t crazy, in fact, I was brilliant for letting Professor Ackerman talk me into taking it.  There I sat typing away and chatting with classmates while nursing Sophia, TMI, I know.  I want to share those details because I think it is important for new moms.

As a new mom you do not have to put your education on hold.  Just a few short years ago, before virtual classrooms, this would not have been the case.  The virtual classroom allows me to continue the pursuit of my educational dreams while being a good mom to my daughter.  Thank you!

Learning Theories and Unions

I was having a conversation with one of my mentors last week.  Dr. Stow is a Stockton Professor Emerita, she has over 35 years of higher education teaching experience, and is one of the most well integrated community member I know.  I respect her and her opinion.

We often discuss my class.  She finds 21^st century learning fascinating particularly the elements of technology such as Wimba.  She is convinced that she would be unable to teach in today’s classroom, I disagree.  Even in her late 80’s she is in tune with how education is evolving along with society’s impact.

In our recent discussion about my class, I was explaining how I was attempting to apply several different learning theories to developing a training program for my office.  She posed a very interesting question.  She said to me, “what impact do unions have on learning theories?”  It got me thinking…

Unions influence the hours that staff works, the environment they work in, when they are allowed to eat, when they take breaks and what they are allowed to have fallen within their job responsibilities.  Do they affect learning theories, absolutely.  When developing my training programs I have to take into consideration all of the following: when and where I am conducting the training program, how long the training session will last and what I am teaching them.  If I am asking them to learn something new that doesn’t fall within their job description I could get in trouble.

I want to be clear I am not discussing rather or not I support unions just merely the fact that certainly effect learning theories when you are developing a training program. 

A Connecting Tool....

I am not sure how many of you out there have had the heartbreaking challenge of living far away from the ones you loved?  I was raised in a military family and although my husband isn’t military I still managed to end up half way across the country from all of my family and friends.  Being away from you family and friends is hard but once you start a family of your own it brings an entirely new level hardship! 

My daughter’s Christening was last weekend.  This was a momentous occasion that just a few years ago could have only been shared with the people that were able to attend.  Not now!  Since my daughter’s birth we have been using Picasa to share pictures and memories of daughter with family and friends.  Picasa is a Google application that allows you to upload pictures from your camera and your camera phone and share them with endless amounts of people.

Tools like Picasa are easy to use and so comforting to family that is far away.  My seventy year old grandmother who is quite eager to meet her first great granddaughter has religiously stalked the Picasa link as means to help her get to know her grandchild.  I know how heartbreaking it is to miss the ones you love especially when you feel so left out of their lives.  I am so thankful that technology has evolved in a direction that allows us to share our lives long distance with the ones we love!