Couch Surfing....

Seems that most of my students were once on Myspace. Now they seem to have migrated to Facebook. Now I hear about something called Couch Surfing. The name brings up a different picture than what I now know.

The whole concept of Couch Surfing is interesting and I can see how meeting people and hosting can have it's benefits. I am not really sure if it is actually something I would "use", but it really would depend on the situation and person.

Looked around the site, looked at other profiles, photos, links, etc... The statistics are interesting- how many Couch Surfers there are, how many Countries are represented and how many positive experiences are documented. I can only imagine the statistics associated with Myspace and / or Facebook.

Couch Surfing is definitely different than Facebook. It seems to have more open-minded, artistic influence than that seen on FB. Maybe even an Earthy aura to it. FB on the other hand.... has everything you can imagine. And then some.

Since I am such a visual person, I had to take a look at the photos I saw posted on the profiles I looked at. Well, in CS, they were less, hmmmm, "talk worthy". I did not see the pictures of the person drunk and passed out on the floor or the person doing things that their mother would not really approve of. Wonder why that is?

The picture thing seems to be a big difference between the two applications, but then again, you would think that it should be. How would you like to be asked to host the town's drunkin, idiot. Yes, they are coming to your town and want to stay at your place for 3 days. Naturally, it's a Thursday (since weekends start here), Friday and Saturday night. Facebook on the other hand can and does have everything for profile pictures. Maybe it's due to originally being a student thing. Mind you everyone and their mother can now have a FB profile.

Let Me Introduce Myself....

OK, so I am not the most social thing. I tend to stay to myself and really don't feel the need to socialize with others and just hang with myself. It's not that I don't play well with others or it's not that I don't like to meet new and exciting people. It's just me and it's the way that I have always been.

Maybe it's due to the fact that I see a lot of people each and every day. I have so much interaction at work or school, whether it's with one of my patients or one of my faculty. Or it could be with one of my 80+ students..... Sensory overload? Naw, it's just me. I like to keep to myself and have always been this way. Gee, maybe I was socialized when I was a pup or child? Who knows.

Anyway, I signed up for meetup.com. Seems they have a photography group that meets each month and the meetings are right down the road from the house. I can't wait until April 8th when I get to attend my first meeting. How exciting! OK, maybe not, but the topic should be good. I am not sure how I will take a picture of someone at the meeting..... excuse me, but this may sound odd, but I want to get a picture of you..... Gee, Ii wonder if they revoke memberships on the first meeting?

As the World Turns in Education....

It was interesting to read the discussion on how the seasons are created and the phases of the moon. It did make me wonder if we really don't "know" things because they are felt that they don't have any bearing on "my" life. Now don't get me wrong, they actually do, but they don't because life goes on without having to think about these facts of life.

Education can have a wonderful impact of what we remember. The way that things are presented and what is used to get the material across will help with the explanation, as well as how well it is remembered by the listeners. Through the use of new media that has become available over time, concepts such as the seasons or phases of the moon, can be made to be more visual for the watcher. So much of what we do is visually related. Listening works, that's if the person is actually listening.....

New media such as gaming, the You Tube thing and the internet, have opened the eyes of the listeners. They can listen, but they can now watch and see. They can visualize how and why these wonderful things occur.

As I am typing this, I just realized that the things I do, the things I teach and the things I understand the most are so much easier to do because of new media. Then I come to the fact that this is also a bad thing for me as well. I hate seeing new media presented to me. It gives me too many ideas of how I want to do things, how I want to change some to the things, and how to obtain the tools to do it as well.

So many media, so little time.....

As the World Turns.....

It has been a loooong time since I even thought about the Sun, Moon and Earth and how they relate to one another and create changes in appearance and/or seasons. I definitely did not feel smarter than a ninth grader.

It was hard to explain the topic at hand. It would have been easier for me and less tormenting to those having to try and understand me to allow me to research it and then TRY to explain it to "Granny".

It was still a fun assignment. Trying to scrape the inside of my brain to come up with something that I was taught many years ago was interesting. I am glad that we did not have to try and explain the concept of balancing the budget.

Rate Me.... you know you want to

Alrighty now..... not that it is high on my list of things, but we are able to see some sort of grade for the assignments that we are doing.  My own students would love this, but for me, it's not anything that I have dreams about.  I do the assignments, some of my results are better than other results that I do, but that's okay with me.

I did take a look at it, since it is only human that one does.  And it seems that I am missed "grades" for several of my assignments.  Go figure.  All assignments have been done and posted as to where they can be found, but maybe if at least one classmate does not "rate" it, there will be no "grade" given or listed.  Super.  I am hoping that I don't have to send out a mass email with a list of areas that I need a "rating".  

I did post a question on this, so I will wait and see.