List to Writing From a Hill

I thought I might as well include another blog page on which I'm working right now, concentrated around sharing the history of the Aguanga area (among various other things):
http://writingfromahill.blogspot.com/

Personal Skills Assignment

The on-line educational environment offered through a program like SLIS has immeasurable potential to build strong bonds with people involved in Library Science throughout the world. Due to my living situation (being in an isolated area without many physical resources nearby), it also opens doors to opportunities, career pursuits, and social contacts that might otherwise have been lost to me.

 

This is a personal reason why the ability to thrive as an on-line student, and to work well in an on-line team is so crucial.

 

But I feel Unit 5 outlined the skills every on-line student should pay attention to or take into consideration when choosing to continue her or his education virtually. Good Internet skills, and the knowledge to understand or navigate web pages is a must. You need a reliable connection, and the proper applications or programs installed to access course materials.

 

Yet those are simply the technical aspects.

 

I’ve been reminded again and again, from family members to the LIBR 203 course content, how important it is to structure your chosen work setting or schedule. For instance, the thought of attending classes in pajamas, or from the comfort of home, is a definite perk. Still, you have to set up a space where you can work without getting disturbed (which can be hard to do if you tend to have a noisy household), and regular periods or times to do academic work.

 

Mixed in with everything else is the drive or commitment to succeed. For an on-line class, in particular, you must continuously persevere against distractions and take the initiative to solve problems related to your learning as they arise, whether it involves contacting an instructor about something you don’t understand in the material, etc. So individual accountability is a major part of being successful as a student in this arena.

 

Of course, individual accountability and structure have prominent roles in teamwork as well. Both Dr. Haycock and Enid Irwin made it clear that striking a balance between each individual and their expectations, versus the group as a whole and its work goals, is a delicate but vital matter. Dr. Haycock, for example, mentioned in his presentation how if individuals do not care about the group’s goals so much as getting a good grade on an assignment that this can be detrimental to what being in a group is supposed to teach. Enid Irwin touches on this fact too, and adds how the ability to work well on a team, and to take full advantage of the strengths each person possesses, continues to be important during a career in Library Science (or similar fields).

 

If each student in a group understands what needs to get done, how to accomplish it (and the commitment to do it), and what contribution she/he can make, things will move along smoothly.

 

This is what I carried away from this section, and I scored well on the assessments. Yay!

 

 

 

 

Blackboard Collaborate Session

I got my first introduction to Blackboard Collaborate this past weekend. A link provided in the content for Unit 4 in LIBR 203 led to a list of every session over the next several days, and luckily enough, there was one slot still open on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. So I submitted an RSVP for that time and received an email with a username, password, etc. to enter that meeting.

 

Whoever had written the message included in the invitation recommended entering Blackboard Collaborate 10 to 15 minutes before the session started, which was sound advice. If you’re new to an application, especially for something like web conferencing, it is worthwhile to explore that virtual environment beforehand. And the screen that popped up was definitely interesting.

 

Included on the far left were three boxes, each with the specific purpose of helping the participants communicate with each other:

 

1.      A spot for video/web cameras, so you could see the speaker during the conversation. There were also volume controls for the microphone and headsets along the bottom of this area. In the top right-hand corner, you could click on the icons to set up the sound options on your computer for the meeting.

2.      The middle box contains the list of participants, along with options set beside each name to interact with or see what the person was doing at that moment. Next to your own name, you had buttons to do such things as: Raise your hand, take a vote, or insert an emotion symbol.

3.      The last box had the chat option, where you could type questions or comments everyone in attendance could see (unless you had another tab open in the same area for a private chat).

 

The largest and main area contained a Powerpoint slide, and the moderators hosting the session would gradually flip through the rest during the presentation. A list of buttons sat along the edge here, similar to the art tools in Microsoft Word or Paint, that allowed you to make marks or insert clip art onto the main area—however, it turned out anything you did on the slide everyone else could see as well.

 

Anyway, when I entered Collaborate around 9:45 a.m., the moderators were already helping other early arrivals with their microphones (a requirement for the meeting). But it was not too difficult to do this, and once the session did get started everyone needed to use this equipment to introduce her or himself out loud.

 

I will not go into much detail regarding everything we talked about during the session, though it seems Blackboard Collaborate is truly an on-line classroom. Professors can hold lectures there, where all the students can listen, ask questions, or participate in various ways. It also lets students meet up for group meetings, or enter this space on an individual basis to work on projects.

 

D2L has been easy to navigate, and so has Blackboard Collaborate. If the technology is this easy to access and understand throughout my education at SLIS, the coming semesters are going to be awesome.

Beginning LIBR 203

Hello, out there. After a year spent waiting to begin the graduate program at San Jose State University, I can finally chase my dreams of going into Library Science alongside so many wonderful people. Hopefully, this blog will also allow me the opportunity to chronicle my experiences doing the on-line courses at this school. ^_^