I completed two online courses through UC Davis Extension yesterday. At the moment I am sampling different possible routes for my next career. Last Spring it was Real Estate through Sac City College, later this summer, when I thought I could be training for CSUB, it was Blackboard certifications. This fall I thought I might explore what my wife does, environmental related work.
The courses were taught online around the implementation of the CAMEO suite from EPA. There may have been much more of a learning curve were it not for the courses I took in environmental sciences back in the early 90s at Diablo Valley College. As it is it was a definite challenge. Anyone interested in developing emergency response plans for a municipality would do well to investigate this package. I enjoyed both courses very much, and the instructor, Kevin Smith presented some very interesting scenarios for learning and implementing the software. It is a pity that UCD does not make more of the hazardous materials program available online. Being a five hour trip each way, it is a bit far for me to go to take classroom courses.
I highly recommend the extension at UCD and these courses if they are of interest. I wold recommend Kevin Smith as an instructor as well. You can find out more about Cameo by going to http://www.epa.gov/oem/content/cameo/what.htm
Friday, December 11, 2009
The perils of social networking to my time.
The perils of social networking to my time.
I have not written here in a couple of months now. Part of this has been a sorting out of priorities given my need to find an alternative career field. I am still teaching a class or two per quarter at CSUB, but it does appear as though in the long term I will need some other career path, if for no other reason than I do a bit of a short attention span when I am not learning myself. I would love to make a go of managing distance education and assessment again, but sadly no one is buying. Lots of formal training and experience in LiveText, WASC, and course management systems, which for the time being at least are of no use to me. Ah well, it is the nature of the (self-made) California budget crisis.
Another aspect of my relative silence here is that I become a regular Facebook junkie, for want of a better word. There is a significant difference between these two mediums. I like to think of it as roughly equivalent to the difference between direct instruction and constructivism. Here, I am alone on the stage. I can emote to my heart’s content and may never know if I have a real audience. Hey, at least in the classroom you can gage your impact with a quiz. Two way communication is available here, but it is in the form of feedback as in a classroom, not an equitable sharing of information. Blogs make virtual podiums. One can conduct a dialog in the comments, but that is not part of the design. On the other hand, Facebook can be (I do mean can be, not is) a truly collaborative environment, though not without limitations. It is by its nature built to create communities and subgroups within communities. An idea thrown out in Facebook may be picked up and elaborated on as a group. I have seen that happen. Since this is the way that I work internally myself, it is very attractive.
The one drawback as a real constructivist environment that I can see is that interaction is limited to what I like to think of as “30 second sound bites”. The length of messages is truncated, so the complexity of thought is also truncated.
But for now, it is a fascinating method for building community and sharing information. It is absorbing a lot of my time.
I have not written here in a couple of months now. Part of this has been a sorting out of priorities given my need to find an alternative career field. I am still teaching a class or two per quarter at CSUB, but it does appear as though in the long term I will need some other career path, if for no other reason than I do a bit of a short attention span when I am not learning myself. I would love to make a go of managing distance education and assessment again, but sadly no one is buying. Lots of formal training and experience in LiveText, WASC, and course management systems, which for the time being at least are of no use to me. Ah well, it is the nature of the (self-made) California budget crisis.
Another aspect of my relative silence here is that I become a regular Facebook junkie, for want of a better word. There is a significant difference between these two mediums. I like to think of it as roughly equivalent to the difference between direct instruction and constructivism. Here, I am alone on the stage. I can emote to my heart’s content and may never know if I have a real audience. Hey, at least in the classroom you can gage your impact with a quiz. Two way communication is available here, but it is in the form of feedback as in a classroom, not an equitable sharing of information. Blogs make virtual podiums. One can conduct a dialog in the comments, but that is not part of the design. On the other hand, Facebook can be (I do mean can be, not is) a truly collaborative environment, though not without limitations. It is by its nature built to create communities and subgroups within communities. An idea thrown out in Facebook may be picked up and elaborated on as a group. I have seen that happen. Since this is the way that I work internally myself, it is very attractive.
The one drawback as a real constructivist environment that I can see is that interaction is limited to what I like to think of as “30 second sound bites”. The length of messages is truncated, so the complexity of thought is also truncated.
But for now, it is a fascinating method for building community and sharing information. It is absorbing a lot of my time.
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