The Beginning of learning how to become computer literate....
Friday, June 14, 2002

The Beginning of learning how to become computer literate…….

Well one week of class is already over. So far it is not as bad as I thought it would be. I am not really good with computers so I was already thinking that I would be struggling with every assignment. However, I have really not run into too many problems yet. Other than the little problem I had when trying to sign up for Yahoo! Groups, everything else went pretty well, which I am a little surprised of because computers hate me and usually when I am doing computer projects something goes wrong. For this week I wanted to go ahead and get everything set up and try to get all of my assignments done. I am afraid that as time goes on, the class assignments will be lengthier, so I want to try to stay on top of things so I won’t get behind due to the fact that I am juggling another class.

For this week, we were introduced to how the class will be set up. We did basic things for a computer class, such as making sure we have an e-mail address, making sure that we can send e-mail, and that we understand the technology policies of the computer. Also, since this is a CD class, we needed to read the ASHA code of ethics. We were also taken to the library to learn to access EBSCOhost, familiarize ourselves with the class homepage, create a web log, understand and read about moo connections, and read and reflect on “information literacy.”

One of the first things that we did was go to the library and learn how to use EBSCOhost, which I am glad of because it has been along time since I have researched articles through EBSCOhost and I had forgotten how to do it. I also learned that there were more research places that we can go to besides Eric and Academic Search Elite. For example, the Medical and the Psychology sites. I also was amazed of how many articles you could find by using different research sites. We found some to have 100 and some with 400 and even sites with several thousand articles. So this will be very beneficial when it comes to our research project. Also, another thing that we did was learn how to use moo connection. A moo connection is what we will use to communicate as a class. I thought it was very interesting that there is such thing as moo connection because it allows us to communicate like we would in class. One thing I liked most about our classes, CD 422 and CD 468, is that we would always do a lot of work by groups. I think it was really interesting to go to moo connections and being able to get in groups. We also spent a lot of time learning how to communicate with a moo connection, which was a little confusing at first because you have to make sure that you type in the correct command or your message won’t go through. I kept pushing “s” on all the endings of my commands, causing my message not to go through. However, after a while I will get used to using all the commands. Also, one of our assignments was to read and reflect on information literacy. Reading this article really opened my eyes to how learning has changed and why it needs to change. I have noticed that my high school changed a lot from just note-taking and lecturing to more group work, individual projects, school-to-work, and a lot of writing projects for reading and math. For the change in school curriculum, I just thought it was my teachers just wanting us to do extra or different work to be mean to us. I remember that I didn’t see the purpose of writing papers on math; however, after reading the article I understand how it enhances your learning.

In general, I think this class will be extremely beneficial as it will allow me to get a better understanding of computers. As of now, I only use the computer to access information for projects and look up my favorite T.V. websites. I think this class will further expand by knowledge by being able to use most of the functions a computer offers. For example, communicating online, online journaling, and various research resources.

Question:
You mentioned that we may want to reflect more than once a week. I was wondering if we follow the same format(content, process, and premise) or can we just maybe write a couple of things that really stuck out that day and then make sure the we have one that reflects everything we did that week and include content, form, and process.

From my freshman year in high school until my senior year of school I bet I have changed my major every week. I was going to be everything from a pre-school teacher to, a veterinarian to, a marine biologist to, a chemist to, a psychologist to, a dietitian, to a nurse. Each week a rotated what I wanted to be. However, when it became my senior year I decided the best way to find out what I want to be is to experience that field. So I really thought about what I wanted to be, I wanted to be in a profession where I could help people. I love children so I knew that the profession that I wanted had to involve kids. I did the school to work program at a daycare (I love kids) and a doctor’s office. I really enjoyed both school to work programs. In the middle of the school to work program I decided that I wanted to become a nurse (pediatric nurse). One main reason I enrolled at Marshall was because I heard Marshall had a good nursing program. My, senior summer I couldn’t get a job (no wanted to hire if I couldn’t work through the year) so I volunteered at a local hospital in the nursery. I loved every minute of it. Until, one day the nurse asked me if I ever had watched a circumcision before. I had not, so of course, I said sure I would love to watch one. I thought this would be a great experience. I guess you could say it was an experience of itself. Half way through the procedure I passed out, it was to late for the doctor to do anything, and I fell and hit my face on the floor. So here I was with a huge bruise on my cheek and chin (under my chin is a scar from falling). This was so embarrassing. They had to wheel me down to the emergency room just to make sure nothing was broken, which luckily nothing was. I am not sure what caused me to pass I don’t think it was because of the blood (there was barely any blood from this procedure), or it could have been, but anyway the baby just cried hysterically and it looked helpless strapped down screaming to the top of it’s lungs. So after that experience that was enough to tell me that nursing was not the job for me. I already had gone through freshman orientation so it was too late to change my major. I was thinking to myself what am I going to do I really have not heard a lot about Marshall. Hardly any one from my tiny town goes out of state. I decided to go to Marshall anyway. In late September, early October I went to Marshall’s home page and clicked on programs of studies, and colleges of schools. Immediately when I read about communication disorders it caught my attention and I knew then that I did not have to search any more I found the profession that I wanted. I still wanted to work with children and with this profession I could do that. Like nursing, with this profession I would be able to interact with the children and help them. Also, I think why I like this profession is that, when I was a kid I had to see a speech pathologist for several sounds ( I used to call myself Tances). A matter of fact everyone in my family (my 2 sisters and brother) had to see the school speech pathologist. I remember my experience as having a lot of fun. With this I really thought that this major would provide me with an opportunity to make things fun but at the same time help someone communicate better. In general, being able to help someone communicate seems so rewarding. I like to be in a profession that the end result (hopefully is positive) makes me feel like both of us have achieved something great.