Because my Professor Judy Fightmaster took the time

There would be no Perpetual Andragogy were it not for CSN Professor Judy Fightmaster's patient instruction in her CIT 198 (Now CIT 154) Dynamic Web Applications class. Basic Googling and websurfing did not give me the technical skills of linking to a source, uploading photos, creating and embedding 'How To' videos, or embellishing my blog and site with the rich multimedia I wanted and needed to showcase my nontraditional adventures.  In retrospect, I wish I would have taken the class much sooner than my fifth semester.

The class is entirely online. This was a new experience for me also. Mastering CSN's Web Campus was, initially, a bit daunting. Could clicking a wrong button tumble me down some techno rabbit hole? Would I be forever lost in EduTron Land?

Thankfully, CSN has a tutorial on how to navigate Web Campus. This pre-class gave me the confidence and know how I needed to download and upload assignments and more. Even though I had not fulfilled the prerequisite class of IS 101, I was familiar enough with computers and the internet to request, via email, admission into the class.

The seven week class entailed an introduction and final analysis of Web 2.0 and its real world applications. Five hands on projects taught the use of Google Docs, Blogs, RSS (Really Simple Syndication), YouTube, Social Networking, Social Bookmarking, Wikis, and Screen Capture Casting. The final project, a class Showcase Portfolio, moderated by Professor Fightmaster, encouraged collaborative feedback and edit amongst the students.

Student collaboration and teamwork was not only the overarching theme of the class, it was required. At first I was a tad ruffled by being 'required' to interact with my classmates. I was here to learn to advance my goals, not other people's. Besides, I didn't want to look like That Person who always asked all the dumb questions.

Leave it to Facebook to force my hand. You wouldn't know it by looking at my Facebook Profile today, but the pre 2010 me was afraid of the privacy disregarding Evil Facebook. But, social networking was one of the required class components, so I decided to chance it.

Imagine my surprise when I went to sign up for  Facebook and could only get to the French landing page. At least my first dumb question "I can't find the English facebook page! Je ne parle pas français ce bien!" didn't sound quite so dumb punctuated with a foreign language. Fellow classmate Elaine came to my rescue with a reassuring "Don't worry, little things get us all stuck now and then. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for language choices." This first peer comment foreshadowed the beneficial interactive discussions I would have in this class and many more classes in the future.

Of the five Spring 2010 semester classes; Financial Accounting, Stars and Galaxies, Dynamic Web Applications, Intro to Interpersonal Communications and Intro to Criminal Justice, I would have to say I spent the most time in and on this class. The class was not more difficult than the others I was taking, but it was the most interesting.

"If we know why we are learning and if the reason fits our needs as we perceive them, we will learn quickly and deeply.” —Malcolm Knowles, Educator.

This was not to say that Dynamic Web Applications did not require detailed attention and considerable time. It did! Reading and commenting on other people's blogs and participating in required discussions was time consuming. Professor Fightmaster, led by example. She always commented on every post and answered every question. 

Because my Professor Judy Fightmaster took the time, I can today boast a considerable toolbox of skills which I am able to bring you via two websites with social platform integration, Google tools and YouTube interaction. I can Facebook, Tweet and Pinterest. And I can catalog, curate and archive it all via Flickr and Diigo.

Professor Fightmaster has other classes besides CIT 154. I know because I took the Access Database precertification course from her. It was challenging, to say the least.

For more information and the classes Professor Judy Fightmaster has coming, please visit the College of Southern Nevada's

Department of Computing & Information Technology-Faculty

Related Posts   It's Due When?     Deadlines and Dropboxes     Learning: It's more than the courses you take

Because my Professor took the time: A Compendium of Gratitude

Image Credits: What the Bleep!?Down the Rabbit Hole; Facebook Profile Cover; Facebook; Judy Fightmaster

Because my Professor took the time: Introduction

As you can see, Perpetual Andragogy has taken a different turn. I have not given up on my ultimate goal of Archivist. Yet I cannot, in good conscience and in our uncertain economy, commit to a full time class schedule and amass more debt. College is expensive!

With a High Honors Associate of Arts degree from the College of Southern Nevada, augmented with professional certifications and self-study courses, why can't I find suitable employment?

The job market, specifically the Las Vegas area, has yet to recover. "Among the 49 metropolitan areas with a Census 200 population of 1 million or more, highest unemployment

Source: bls.gov via Kathleen on Pinterest

       rates in August were registered in Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev." (bls.gov) With diluted enthusiasm, I continue my job hunt; despite these dismal statistics. The answer to my question, "would it [returning to college] be worth it?" is "not yet."

But this is a site about Andragogy; the adult learner; the nontraditional student. If I'm not in college, how can I tell you about my Academic Adventures?  While I was taking classes, doing homework, contributing to my community and juggling my home life, I was only able to give you glimpses of life as a nontraditional student. Now that I have a bit more time on my hands, I can now give you an in depth, reflective observation of my Andragogical* Adventures.

 Glad I have only 'a touch of Sometimers'

In the weeks to come I will bring you the series: Because my Professor took the time. Each installment will feature a CSN Professor and the class taken. I will highlight also, the lessons learned and how I use this knowledge in my daily life. Be sure to check the series' static page for links, updates and more information. You are welcome to ask questions or add your own input in the comment section. If you have a question you don't want publicly displayed, feel free to message me on facebook.

*"Andragogical Learning Theory - Beginning in the 1950s Malcolm Knowles developed a new theory - which he called "Andragogy" - in the context of adult learners."

Source: Wikipedia

College Piggy Bank from Tax Credits via Flickr Creative Commons

Project Angel Faces Tweetchat Join us LIVE #pricklypaf Wednesday, September 19th

Learn more about the Prickly Pear You may be across town or on the other side of the World. But you can still come have fun with us at Project Angel Faces' Garden Club   "as we learn how to clean, eat, juice, and store cactus fruit!" 

It's almost Juice Time!

 

Take me to the #pricklypaf Tweetchat Room

I don't see the time for my part of the World

"We cultivate Hope for the Future."

Get Prickly with Project Angel Faces Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at the Whitney Recreation Center

Guest Post by Rhonda Killough, Founder of Project Angel Faces

Come have fun with us at Garden Club as we learn how to clean, eat, juice, and store cactus fruit!

RSVP on Facebook

At Garden Club, on September 19th, we'll be peeling, seeding, juicing, and freezing cactus fruit with apples and grapes to make popsicles, and drinking juice. 

Prickly Pears grow wild in abundance on cactus throughout our valley. They have loads of good nutrition that can help to prevent conditions such as osteoporosis, diabetes, high blood pressure, anxiety, and migraines. They also strengthen teeth, bones, our immune system, our nerve, enzyme, and amino acid functions, and help keep our fluid and electrolytes balanced. They taste like the color red, tart, mildly sweet, and with the texture similar to a pear.

Garden Club is such a wonderful program because the children get so excited to learn about new foods, they can hardly contain themselves. The activities we do are empowering to these kids; working with the foods, trusting the children to get their hands on the process of learning.

We get to practice learning so much more than just about working with food: patience, listening, sharing, respect for peers and teachers, non-violent communication, and sometimes cultural exploration!

It creates a lasting impression on them, and that is empowering for me as a community servant. My favorite part is how much they love learning how these foods we introduce build and grow their bodies, and make them stronger. They love being empowered by knowledge, and having so much fun in the process! 

Wednesday, September 19, 2012 from 4:15pm - 5:45pm Project Angel Faces will teach the cleaning, paring, juicing, and learning the nutrition of a locally abundant fruit, Prickly Pear!

Children over 5 are Welcome!

Garden Club at the 

Whitney Recreation Center

Click Photo for Directions

  Always an adventure in learning! 

Garden Club Checklist ~ Please Bring:

Metal tongs

Nitrile Gloves

 And Wear Clothes you can get Dirty!

Credits

Guest Post by Rhonda Killough, Founder of ProjectAngelFaces.org

Layout & Edit by Kathleen Ackroyd of 'That Dam Kat' 

Venue: Whitney Recreation Center 

Photos: ProjectAngelFaces.org, Wikimedia, finemotorskillsforchildren.com, g2goutside.org 

Need more information? Contact Rhonda Killough via email: planetrhonda@gmail.com or Visit the Event on Facebook 

Can't make it?  

Join the Tweetchat 

LIVE from the 

Whitney Recreation Center

"We cultivate Hope for the Future."

 

"Love Your Library? Tell a Friend!" LVCCLD teams up with CSI: The Experience

September is Library Card 
Sign Up Month!

Earn a Family Pack of Tickets to CSI: The Experience!

 Visit http://www.lvccld.org for Details

Sign up for your free Las Vegas Clark County Library District Card at the following locations:

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CSN's IT Training & Development Fair Saturday, September 15 10:00am-3:00pm

Baptized on Merovingian Ground

My Oma, were she alive today, would be 93. She was born nine months and some odd days after Armistice Day or what we know as Veterans Day. When Mom told me that she had been Baptized in the historical Frankfurt Cathedral; I just had to know more.

Helen Mayenfels (1919-1999)

Oakland Tribune, September 7, 1919, Page 1

NewspaperARCHIVE

Frankfurt Dom Abend

"Treaty To Be Ratified By Wilson" shouted the Oakland Tribune headline on September 7, 1919. Approximately six weeks after her birth, Oma did some shouting of her own.

Oma was Baptized in the Frankfurter Dom. The official name is Kaiserdom Sankt Bartholomäus; Emperor Cathedral of Saint Bartholomew.  "St. Bartholomew's is the main church of Frankfurt and was constructed in the 14th and 15th centuries on the foundation of an earlier church from the Merovingian time."

Much ado is recently made by conspiracy theorists about Satanic and political bloodlines and popular focus is also garnered by Dan Brown's books.

The Main Divisions of the Frankish Kingdoms under the Merovingian Kings.
But "Merovingian society...was clearly a Christian society..., and one cannot ignore the vital and central part that was played by Christianity in its cultural life (Hen). Dark Age Christianity echoes still barbaric bloodshed in stories of quests for World Domination.

Frankfurt Dom Querschiff

Oma, as Family Lore goes, "...hat die ganzen Kirche ausgebrult." In English, and not a literal translation, screamed her head off [at her Baptism.] Did Oma, as a new Soul, know what type of ground she was being Baptized upon? Or was it more the 'in the air buzz' of  The Red Scare and Hitler's eminent rise to power?

The Germany my Family was raised in, is one I can scarcely imagine. Harder still is extracting bits and pieces of Oral Family History. Scars of suppression, depression, bombings and annihilation show not only in the German landscape. These scars, they show in my Family's soul.


Sources

The Merovingians by Professor Robert Sewell

Culture & Tradition in Merovingian Gaul AD 481-751 by Yitzhak Hen

Modern History Germany Timeline 1918-1945

Frankfurt Cathedral and Photos Wikipedia and Wikimedia

Historical Frankfurt

 Would you like to know more about your Family History? 
Contact Bob Nix on Facebook and be sure to visit his shop   House of Names