It seems that many students in this class had a rough past week, having reported various illnesses. You were not alone, my friends. I had an eye infection that caused a constant burning feeling and also experienced some serious sinus problems over the weekend. The combination left me in misery. All I wanted to do was sleep all day. However, the medicine has done its magic, and now I must be a responsible student and finish my assignments.
This past week has not been as bad as I thought it would be. By this, I mean that the computer and I have been getting along for the most part. However, internet explorer on my personal computer decided to quit working. Perfect timing, right? It turns out that I have to save all of my downloaded programs and work that I have saved since I got the computer, so that I can use my recovery CD to restore my computer to the way that it was when I bought it 6 months ago. Once that’s complete, I’ll have to download all of this information all over again. Ah, what I won’t do for an education. While this seems like it will take a lot of time and effort, I’m not going to let it stress me out. I figure it’s way too early in the class to be getting stressed out already. If this is the only computer problem that I encounter during this class, I will be very grateful. Say some prayers for me. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah! Like I said the first day of class, computers and I have not had the best relationship in the past. Because of this, I don’t know what to expect. I’ve never really given computers a chance, so maybe I’ll be better at this than I thought. I’ll just have to wait and see. You, too, will discover the answer to this question since you’ll be reading everything that I’m thinking about this class, which brings me to my next thought. I was at first nervous about having all of my work and thoughts available for the class to read. I was especially nervous about having others comment online about my work. I thought, "What if someone criticizes my work? Everyone will read the criticism. How embarrassing that will be." It didn’t take long for me to realize that I was just being silly. If this were anyone else, I would have reason to be nervous, but it’s not anyone else, it’s you guys! Over the past few years, we’ve all come to know each other really well and have become friends. I know that I don’t have to worry about any of you embarrassing me. I consider us all to be mature adults capable of offering and accepting constructive criticism from our friends. After all, this is how we learn from one another, which seems to be one of the purposes of this class. Am I right, Mrs. McComas? Wow! It’s like once I start reflecting, I can’t stop. See what you’ve done to me, Mrs. McComas! I better move on. I don’t want to use up all of my blog space with one entry!
This week, for the most part, has been a week of preparation for the weeks to come. I signed up for yahoogroups, joined the Moo, and created my own weblog. I had thought that this would be complicated for those of us that aren’t computer junkies, but it wasn’t. Basically, it just required the ability to follow directions, a skill I have finally mastered, which Sister Margaret Ann would be thrilled to know. For those of you that are confused by the previous sentence, Sr. Margaret Ann was my first grade teacher, who kept me in during recess practically everyday for talking too much and not following directions. Now, 15 years later, I have finally mastered the concept of following directions. Getting back on subject, we were assigned some basic reading assignments, at least I thought they were basic (I’ll come back to this in the next paragraph). Also, we sent introductions to the class. It’s amazing, that after spending three years of classes together, there is still much to be learned about one another.
On the first day of class, we were introduced to EBSCOhost, which was very educational for me. We learned where and how to find the information that we will need for this class. Not only will this be beneficial to us for this class, it will be beneficial to our work in other classes and as practicing speech pathologists (just another three years, girls (and Matt)). The following day, we all met at the Moo to get things rolling. At first, I was a little confused. Luckily, I was armed with all of the Moo Command instructions and a fellow classmate, Frances, to get me through it. We learned how to express our thoughts and emotions, talk to one specific person, and move to different rooms. We were also divided into groups, which is something we are all used to by now. I like being divided into different groups for different classes. It is this that has allowed me to get to know so many fellow students personally for which I probably wouldn’t have on my own. I think that’s why we have such a close, supportive class. The most recent thing that I’ve done this week is the writing prompt. As I said in the previous paragraph, I expected this to be basic reading and didn’t think that it would take very long to do the assignment. I probably could have completed the assignment rather quickly had I not been brainwashed to reflect about everything ( I mean this in a totally positive way). I find that even when the word "reflect" is not included in the directions for an assignment, I still find myself reflecting. I don’t think that this is a new process for me. I’ve probably always reflected while reading, I just never paid attention to my thoughts. Does that make sense? As I was completing this assignment, I started thinking about how information literacy relates to our experience the first day of class. We were introduced to various possible sources of information on EBSCOhost and even taught how to know if a certain article is peer reviewed, each of which are abilities that are included in the definition of "information literacy," as written in one of the articles. It seems to me that learning about EBSCOhost was somewhat of a stepping stone to learning how to become information literate.
A week ago, before completing any of the assignments, I was really intimidated, as I’m sure many others were. Here I am, a week later, and I’m still intimidated. However, I’m not afraid. To me, intimidation and fear are two totally different emotions. Fear causes me to panic and afraid to face the unknown. Intimidation, on the other hand, causes me to be weary of the unknown, but not afraid to face it. Of course, I’m concerned about how well I will measure up to the demands of this class. This is a feeling that comes with anything new, but there’s no use in worrying myself sick over it. I’ll just give it my best effort, as I would with any other class, and hope that, in doing so, I am successful. Besides, while we will earn our Master’s degree in another three years (hopefully), the learning will not end there. As stated in the assigned articles, by becoming information literate, we become "lifelong learners," so we might as well get used to it. We’re in for a long haul!
I don’t have any questions at the moment. Thanks to everyone else asking questions throughout the week, all of my questions have already been answered. Thanks again to everyone for posting your questions. It has been very helpful for me.