Speaking of history

I have been working on my paper and trying to draw some inspiration from my past experience.
My first encounter with a computer was when I was a Freshman on the campus of MSU in the spring of 1975. I took a computer programming class, which wasn't a mistake, self paced however, was. The language we used was Fortran and all of our instructions were in the form of punch cards.

The computer we used was a room-sized mainframe CDC-6500. You sat at the console and punched your cards with a device that resembled a typewriter.

This computer could run at a blistering 10 MHz. You would have to punch literally hundreds of cards to get the damn thing to return a message like, "hello world." Many hours were spent in the lab debugging the program. I flunked!

Flash forward to 2001 where I took a computer science strand at Aquinas College and worked with programming languages like C++, Visual Basic, and a little Java. You would have to write lines of code to get the damn thing to return a message like, "hello world." Many hours were spent in the lab debugging the program. I earned 3.8's.

I am now typing this on a fast IMac that compared to the CDC-6500 is a light-speed 2.6 GHz, or over two hundred times faster. Many hours are spent in the home office finding pictures of dogs wearing hats. I earn great marks!


:-)

bf

Distance education and technology

Well my mom was right, you do learn something everyday. On a lark, because I have so much free time these days between working, doing work for this class, video taping varsity football games, practicing music, and an after school broadcasting club, I thought I would look at the history of what we all currently have in common these days. I of course am talking about our common entry into distance learning. I have participated in one other "hybrid" class before and have helped many students at school with their Blackboard problems etc. but how new is this phenomena of distance learning?

I have learned that distance learning can be traced back to mail correspondence courses dating back to the 1840's. In fact a woman named Anna Ticknow established courses that woman could study at home in 1873. I find that the underpinnings of what we think is a modern concept reaching so far back in our history really interesting.
If you would like to read this article you can find it at;
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring01/deClair/history.html
bf

Accessibility

What propitious timing! this year we have a wheelchair bound student who has Cerebral Palsy and he asked me today if I had any assistive software to help with him with his mathematics. Since one of our objectives for this class are to research this topic.......well........stay tuned to this blog.
:)

This is nice

I have just discovered a resource that I never knew existed. I'm certain that it has been available for some time now but I just found it a couple of days ago. I'm talking about Google Sites. You can make simple websites for free. Admittedly not as full featured as something you might put together yourself using Dreamweaver....or even Facebook but I can see a multitude of uses for it. If you don't have access to a website design program at your school, or even web space for that matter this is an easy thing to accomplish. I spoke with the tech director for our school about my discovery and he said he uses Google Sites often when he gives presentations. No muss no fuss he just launches it and brings up his information where ever he is. Coupling this resource with Google Docs, I think, can be very timesaving.
bf

Well how's your tech day?

Mine not so good.
Our network is experiencing what seems to be a mild cold......hopefully not full blown Swine Flu ;)
It seems when days like this happen everybody's life is miserable. Mine because I do most of the real-time I.T. and the teachers because when you are in the front of the room and the reason butts are in your seats....well I don't have to say anymore to those of us who teach.

I have a broadcast club and getting the kids up to speed every year is a challenge. I have to figure out how to get some new equipment as we are down to one DV camera that is used by about 10 kids in the club. I am going to try to teach a new technique to them about composing shots this week and well one camera is going to be an issue.

Do any of you use video in your classroom?
bf

Why they call it Windows

It has been one of those technology days! My computer keeps crashing, my applications are freezing, and the students/teachers have been having all kinds of trouble that require my attention. (Did I say I am the building IT person).....Why do they call it Windows?
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Cleverly titled, "My First Blog"

Hello all,

Well I just finished a nice Sunday dinner of BBQ ribs, and Brussels Sprouts so what better time than now to post my first blog for this class. All I have to be careful of is not get BBQ sauce on my wife's keyboard.

A little about myself as a means of introduction.
I came into education late in life. After working as a union organizer and business rep for most of my adult professional life I starting working at Portland High School as a Para-educator with Sophomore special ed students. I found that I love the environment so back to school to get my teaching certification. In 1979 I left MSU with Junior status and took up studies in 2000 at Aquinas to finish my Bachelor's degree and I obtained my teaching certification in 2004.

Ahhh student teacher at age 49 on crutches from a recent Achilles tendon surgery with five preps in two different rooms at Laingsburg High School.....I made it! - Still looking for my first teaching job :(

I commit to reading all of your posts and will comment appropriately.

You can find my contact information, including cell, work, and home phone numbers on Blackboard as I don't think this is a very secure place to post that information.

Best of luck to all and I would be more than willing to help with anything I can.

Brad Foltz