Morning's Edge

This was a beautiful morning that transitioned into a scorching day. High temperature here today was 104 F. It was late into the evening before the temps dropped enough to turn off the AC and open all doors and windows and adjust some fans to pull in the outdoor cool.

I was back at the campus today for more help with the online portion of my course. Two instructors were in the room to assist. Bonnie was leading and she is a English/Humanities professor; she is a colleague of mine and she speaks my language. The other gal is a Computer Information Systems instructor, and she sat in the back of the room at a computer with me . . . To walk me through what she thought I needed to know. I went to the workshop thinking I just had a question or two with selecting which format to use to upload an assignment. Within moments I realized I was in deep trouble because she wanted me to rearrange and almost reconstruct my entire course. After about 90 minutes I left feeling greatly perplexed, a bit frustrated, but determined that by Tuesday when my course opens, I will have this solved. Why is this stuff never easy?

So Bonnie and I are now communicating by email and Cathy, who was one of the people helping yesterday, is also helping by email. It all feels like smoke and mirrors to me. When the computer whiz-bangs at the Apple store and others who lead workshops start referring to sending stuff to "the cloud," I seriously think about going to the moon.

I am just about ready for the "earth" portion of my class on Tuesday morning and that feels good. It would be wonderful, though, if I could with confidence introduce students to the cyber portions of my class. I've got three whole days to pep talk myself and possilby earn an Oscar by acting like everything is under control. I was comforted to see the number of colleagues in the room today and many of them scratching their heads and very uncertain.

I think it's okay for me to feel a litte shakey and uneasy -- many of my students will feel that way this coming week as they step into college wondering what in the world are they doing there. I'll do my best to reassure them that we'll all be okay. I always like to add, "And six months from now this will just be a bad memory." Usually only a few of the really sharp students get the joke and laugh. Everyone else is just to panicked to catch the humor.

Hope you have a memorable Saturday.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol