Homage to the flame haired gypsy . . .

Autumn dances across the plains, her copper tresses brushing against the leaves on the trees as she passes.
She entices all with her beauty wantonly whispering that she will linger
Even as we are awed by the brilliance of her halcyon reflections in the lake
The blackbirds congregate and cry out as they perch mottled amidst the jingling of the golden coins on the poplars
Their anxious cacophony announces that they are not deceived by such a majestic charade
They know too well her familiar calling cards and gather to begin their long trek southward
Although the flame haired temptress beckons them to stay and bask in her warmth
But the winged warriors know that autumn is a beguiling beauty whose temperament can be very fickle, restless and fleeting.
One moment her warm breath and unequaled splendor have conquered the landscape
With the turn of her heel the foreboding winds and driving rain of early winter arrive as a reminder that the old man cannot be far behind
And all that is left of the restless gypsy is the rustle of her crimson petticoats that have left their remnants scattered on the ground as a bittersweet reminder of her once blazing glory and hypnotic dance upon the landscape . . .

Alas now but a smoldering memory in the vermillion haze of the sunset---she has vanished.

                                                        C. L. Schrage

Protein Cocktail Elixir – Secret of Longevity? » Right Juris

Protein Cocktail Elixir – Secret of Longevity? » Right Juris

From Longfellow's Evangeline . . .

NOW had the season returned, when the nights grow colder and longer,
And the retreating sun the sign of the Scorpion enters.
Birds of passage sailed through the leaden air, from the ice-bound,
Desolate northern bays to the shores of tropical islands.
Harvests were gathered in; and wild with the winds of September
Wrestled the trees of the forests, as Jacob of old with the angel.
All the signs foretold a winter long and inclement.
Bees, with prophetic instinct of want, had hoarded their honey
Till the hives overflowed; and the Indian hunters asserted
Cold would the winter be, for thick was the fur of the foxes.
Such was the advent of autumn. Then followed that beautiful season,
Called by the pious Acadian peasants the Summer of All-Saints!
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.

Only We Create Our Limits . . .

It's been hot. That sticky heat that screams 100% humidity. Peoples' attitudes are being pushed into a negative flow. Yesterday it seemed that hot and bothered came to a crescendo in the the faces and feelings of the people I encountered.

I heard a woman in church lamenting about the humidity, saw a disgruntled father riding herd over three children and dripping ice cream cones, and heard a group of people having a heavy discussion about all the chaos dragging through the world . . .

Days like these pull you away from being upbeat and feeling connected to your inner muse. It seems like all my creativity and inspiration melted with the humidity and the projects and work I needed them for were just as sticky and oppressive as the heat.

With sundown and the night settling in I detected a definite shift in how I was feeling. The air had noticeably cooled as I sat in a lawn chair in the darkness. The night sounds of the locust were the only music to break the silence.

I peered up into the blackness of the night sky and saw a million stars overhead and suddenly felt very small and amazed at the limitlessness before me. This magnificent display made me also think about the limitlessness of our own possibilities in life in general. How can one sit in the midst of such majesty and feel any limitations?

Do you believe in the limitlessness of your experience as a human being---or do you create limits or boundaries for yourself. There are so many people who have "disabilities" that move through their lives inspired, happy and doing what they want. Their "disabilities" don't confine or define them and they certainly don't hold them back.

People looking on may be held back by what they perceive with their minds as "disabilities" these people are "enduring". I used to teach beginning swimming to teens and special needs children. I remember one day two of the teens were moody and in a snit about something and their immediate refrain was "I can't".
They had set up an attitude in their minds and their behavior that said "I can't" was who they were.

I asked these teens to stay late and to watch the lesson for the special needs children. What those teens learned that day as they watched was that we create our own limits.

The special needs kids had physical and mental disabilities . . .in a broad range but they were excited and did not let anything hold them back from conquering the challenges that the pool held for them. It was clear for these teens that "I can't" was not part of the mindset of the kids they watched that day in the special needs program.

I was reminded of this experience as I thought about a new statue of Helen Keller that was unveiled at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. It is a wonderful depiction of Helen Keller as a girl at the well hand pump. Learning to connect with her environment and herself through touch, despite her "disabilities". Refusing to accept limitations Helen Keller thirved in her life and was a pioneer for all of those who have to overcome "disabilities" throughout the world.

Our mind can be our biggest enemy or our strongest ally. Which is it for you?? Refusing to set ourselves up with limitations is the first step toward limitless possibilities.

How do you let your mind describe you and how you experience yourself in the human condition?

How would you describe yourself? Do you have an openness to possibilities, to a strong belief in yourself . . .?

When you are open to the belief of the limitlessness of your experience as a human you have taken the first step to connect with your strongest ally.

Pick a clear night and sit outside at about midnight and look up into the firmament. Revel in the limitlessness you see before you and take the time to ponder your own possibilities. What possibilities can life hold for you in the future?

Ahhhhhhhh sweet summer!

It's June! How sweet is that! Long days, warm starlit nights, NO CLASSES! That third one is music to my ears in the summer. I am one of those people who has to soak up summer full out---submerge myself, be it outside in the grass, in the garden, under the trees, near the lake or on the water. When I was a kid and summer was approaching, school suddenly became almost unbearable for me. The sun gods were calling my name and it was nigh unto impossible for me to concentrate on anything that was going on in that drab existence in the classroom.

That is why I really still relish the freedom of NO CLASSES in the summer. It is particularly sweet this summer, as I tease my colleagues as they struggle through their summer studies. What is it that makes you love to torment someone else whose in the midst of that summer school misery? Is it because you have been there one too many times yourself? I am certain that is a big part of it----na,na,na, na-na, I don't have to suffer that cruel and unusual summer torment!

Take it from an expert on the subject, summer was meant for daydreaming, kicking back, reading, reflecting, snoozing on the lawn, fishin' and enjoying the warm summer sunshine out-of-doors. "It just tain't natural for no book learnin'." I betcha Mark Twain would back me up on that statement.

Now I have to admit that I have started to feel summer slippin' away as we are moving into July and I remember how the days begin to fly by after the 4th. Stores will be taunting me with all of their school supplies and I regret to admit I have already signed up for fall classes---another sign that summertime is fleeting.

That is why I have to take the time to enjoy these warm summer mornings when the daylight breaks the darkness before 5 a.m. and the sultry evenings when the fireflies blink like nature's billboard in the dusk over the cornfields and the midnight sky is ablaze with a million stars free for the viewing.

It is absolutely imperative to take Henry David Thoreau's sage advice and "Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, ..." So you'll have to excuse me if you don't see my ramblings committed to these pages during these summer days and nights. My mind is not tuned to software, soliloquy or Shakespeare. It is caught up with the rest of my soul on dreamin' under the midnight sky, driftin' off under the soft rustle of the oaks and spending time seriously reflecting on whether this is the summer I am going to catch that big fish at the lake that got away from me last year.

Ahhh yes summer----it doesn't get any sweeter than this dulcet season. I truly have felt sympathy pain for those of you who are harnessed to the delirium of that textbook, whose eyes suffer from the glaze that comes from too many hours in front of that CRT screen and can be identified from your classroom pallor. You poor things, you poor, poor things. I hope your torment subsides before summer flees this year. If it does---you can find me laying out in the hammock by the lake. HEE-HEE! I'll be the one with the sly grin on my face.

Freedom is . . .

never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. ~

Captivating!

I went to my first class on the software program entitled, Captivate last weekend. As you can see I am a little black and blue from trying to absorb all of the potential uses for this tool. I can definitely see how useful this program could be for online classes where instructors wish to do demonstrations or "how-to's" and also as a tool for setting up quizzes.

I am a total newbie to the software and am sure that it has many more applications that I have not yet been discovered in the short time that I have worked with it. The most unfortunate part is that the software is quite expensive and the university does not have a license for the use of Captivate at this time so we are forced to use the 30 day trial package.

It does give the student time to familiarize themselves with the tools and settings, but it won't be much help when constructing future virtual classrooms if it is no longer accessible because the trial period has expired!!!

I hope the university sees the value in investing in several of these software programs and purchases the licensing so that they are available to online instructors as the menu of online offerings continues to expand!

Until then I will be forced to try and make lemonade from lemons and learn everything I can about the program during this brief introductory period. Every software program I learn at least gives me exposure to the possibilities that are out there to flesh out and add life and enhance community in my online classes.

The Next Step . . .

In my last post I teased my colleagues about the fact that they would all be engaged in classes this summer and I would not. This statement in fact is not entirely true. I am planning on taking one or two workshops this summer on software that can be used to enhance my online classes.

Two weekends in May I will be learning Captivate and two weekends in June will be devoted to learning something about Dreamweaver. I am an ardent believer in the fact that these types of software programs do a great deal to enhance an online class and breathe life into the communications by adding another dimension. I am very anxious to learn new software programs that I can use to be more creative in my class offerings.

Due to the nature of today's student (a very tech savvy generation), it is imperative that online learning be engaging and challenging by being many faceted. Learning should always be a challenging, enlightening pursuit however, it should also contain an element of excitement and fun for the student. Quite simply real learning should be more exciting than watching paint dry---I have been a student in a few of those classes and boredom does not begin to explain those experiences.

On ground we can "sorta" tell when we are in for a class in boring 101 when you walk in the first day and you wonder if you should take the instructor's pulse to see if they are still breathing. Your immediate impression is they are even less excited to be there than their students. Is it any wonder than students immediately become comatose when the teacher begins to drone on in a monotone about the class expectations (expectations he/she probably has not changed in the last 5+ years of teaching this same class? And then instructors wonder why their students don't seem engaged in the class?

Online engagement is even more difficult because the instructor is faced with developing strong communications with/between students often without the advantage of any f-2-f encounter being a possibility. There in lies the first big challenge----engagement. Making the student interesting enough to have students look forward to logging in to learn. This takes all of the muscle that a good instructor can muscle----so thus I need to start building up my arsenal of exercises that will help me to build a worthwhile cyber class. I envision a place where challenges are offered and communication between classmates occurs twenty-four seven because they are interested in exchanging their ideas with each other. TWENTY FOUR-SEVEN---I once saw a sign in an all night diner that read, HOT COFFEE---Day or Night----24-7. There was something about that sign that conjured up a sense of warmth and security, so much so that I never forgot seeing it. That is part of the beauty I see in these online class exchanges. I have popped online late at night only to find some of my classmates online also. Granted I have had persons from the other side of the planet like Australia who were on because it was already the next day, but it was still comforting to find other students struggling through their assignments (albeit perhaps due to procrastination) online also. I suppose one could say that misery loves company! It is nice to know that you are not alone out there in cyberspace and you can always find someone who is willing to discuss any topic at any hour of the day or night somewhere out there in the cyber galaxy.

So this is just the first next step on this journey in honing my skill level for this endeavor. I do,however, intend to also spend some time recharging my batteries this summer by doing a little reading under that shade tree. Hope you have a chance to do the same.

I Made It!! Now I Can Do My Happy Dance, Viola, Terri and Sharon!! Ha! Ha!

This summer while I am lying in my hammock under a shade tree sipping a Mai-Tai or a Long Island ice tea, I will look northwest toward the university and think of you struggling away at your next class in the series. If by chance I hear swearing from that direction----I will also think of you.

When I am in the pool floating in the warm sunshine, I , too, will toss my head back and grimace on your behalf. If by chance I pass a computer lab, a library or a mental health facility I will also think about the tribulations you are experiencing.

I will think of you when I am reading the latest trashy magazine or eating shrimp on the "barbie", or steak, or whatever. I will also think of you as I lay in repose on my chaise lounge eating bon-bons. And I will stop long enough to mutter----you poor thing----you poor, poor thing". I promise----that this I will faithfully do. Yes I will think of you during the "doghouse days of summer"-----but look on the bright side--- Viola ---your instructor will be in sunny California and she can tell you all about it in class! HEE HEE HEE

IMAGINE - Some say I'm a dreamer . . .

As I come to the end of these four classes in the online teaching certification program, I can only look in amazement from whence I came and wistfully imagine what lies ahead.

I came into this adventure knowing that I knew enough about online learning to easily admit that I loved the concept and the dynamics of cyberspace. Cyber learning was designed for me. I love the freedom and mobility it affords, the open exchange of ideas with the largest diverse community of minds on earth at your fingertips and the up-to-date nature of the prospect of dynamic learning.
I was a child of the btc era (before the computer era) when the best information source we had was a dusty old set of the Encyclopedia Britannica and I happened to be one of those children who was always wondering about something---the “Cliff Claven” of my grammar school. Space travel was one of my fascinations and the information you found on the space program was outdated by the time the encyclopedia was published. You also couldn’t interact with the encyclopedia and ask it for additional information or different points of view. That was a stagnant, lifeless form of learning---outdated and overrated. Couple that with the fact that I was also a child of a remote, rural area and we couldn’t even get good television reception. My parents (by choice) decided we did not need a phone so my solace was in books and I was an insatiable reader but much of the topical information was also outdated in those tomes also.

Thus you can understand why from the first time I touched the keyboard on a computer and experienced the Internet, I knew that it was manna from Heaven---a natural boon for my insatiable curiosity---it was designed for people like me. Why it was like going from a horse and buggy to climbing on board the Challenger. Imagine that now when I want to know where the largest meteor struck on earth, what time it is in Pohnpei, the latest research on ALS or how long Thoreau spent at Walden Pond, I can find it in a moment’s notice. This is learning the way it was meant to be. To say that I was hooked is an understatement!!!

After having taken numerous online classes from the viewpoint of an online learner, I decided it was time to take the love of this medium one step further and imagine the potential of becoming an online instructor. Thus I enrolled in the online teaching certification program. How hard could that be-----WHO KNEW???

This certification program has successfully brought me to my knees more times than I care to recount. Along with that humbling realization came all of the other “quirky little issues that aren’t supposed to happen but occur with technology”. Around every corner on this continuum, I was confronted with new challenges, sometimes I found a bridge across the abyss and sometimes it seemed like I was being swallowed by a black hole. These times generally came around midnight when I had attempted to do something for the 44th time and still was unsuccessful---but if you can imagine it, I was still unwilling to give in to failure and admit defeat.

In spite of all of this my desire to move into online teaching has never wavered. The cyber world have become like an extra appendage. This is a revolutionary change in teaching. This medium is the unchartered wilderness of today’s academic world. We can only begin to imagine the possibilities. We have only seen the tip of the iceberg, much more lies still hidden from our narrow conceptualized view. Believe it if you can dream it.

And as that dreamer, I imagine a day when virtual reality becomes commonplace in the cyber classroom. I have already witnessed crossing the chasm of exchanging views with classmates on the other side of the world. Imagine how great those possibilities? I also see a time when printed textbooks will be as archaic as the slates students used in the one room classrooms of the past. Who wants to be stuck reading stagnant wording in an outdated text when real time changes are occurring everyday in everything from medicine to horticulture.

I also dream of the day when cyber learning will completely obliterate and bridge the digital learning divide for those in remote areas of third world countries. There will be so many more minds contributing solutions to the problems that face our world! Imagine the potential is limitless. The world is our oyster my friend.

I am a dreamer, but I have admittedly waded through some technical glitches---not enough memory----on the pc or in my cranium and I have hurled myself headlong into quagmires that I thought only existed in the Amazon jungle. I have been stumped, chumped and I’ve almost jumped (more than once) out of this program. I have seriously considered the fact that I might have some type of masochistic tendency that kept me consistently propelling myself forward. Granted sometimes, it has just been my own stupidity----wondering why I couldn’t see the text on a black blog page----duh when I had the font color set to black!! (That little gem only took me about ten minutes to figure out!) Sometimes it has been a case of “no ability----big task” and sometimes it has been just the newness of a concept that has caused me to stumble.

Quite honestly, if you can imagine I have been aggravated, deflated, irritated, flagellated, abated, berated, debated, infuriated, dated, agitated, eviscerated, negated, overrated, inundated, intimidated, humiliated, nauseated and animated but I have also been elated, elevated, ruminated, orchestrated, narrated, vacillated, venerated, titillated, orientated, saturated, sophisticated (?), vindicated, facilitated, fascinated and exhilarated just to name a few verbs that occur to me right now and I have persisted. I would tell any first semester student in this program that is just starting on this journey that they are in for quite a roller coaster ride. Every time you slowly have inched your way to a high vantage point and sigh with relief another precipice appears before you and you breathlessly go spirally downward and holding on for dear life and just about when you are ready to give up you are ascending upward again and enjoying the magnificent view along the way.

Can you imagine that my passion for the potential that lies over the next cyber horizon has still never waned? With this fourth class, the real clarity with all of the bells and whistles finally just started to kick in recently. The pieces of the mental puzzle of class four’s technology overload is just starting to come together in my mind.

Yet despite all of the gnashing of teeth, I still have an unswerving desire to see what is around the next bend in this road. How will the dynamics change next? What new innovation will pop up this year? New software, always new software and new opportunities and new and faster computer speeds, better audio visual opportunities, better communication mediums---imagine the opportunity to incorporate better technologies in a basic course to flesh it out and make it more engaging for cyber learners? Look how far the last ten years have brought us and we have only just begun. Can you imagine?

Beyond all of this are all of the people I have coalesced with in cyber classes, many of whom have my deepest admiration. I particularly admire those instructors who are willing to take that risk and move from the comfort of being the sage on the stage on ground for years to the novice guide on the side online. I have seen many of them struggle with the transition, but they have stayed the course and are working hard to become a part of the new order. Instructors who are willing to move out of their comfort zone and meet the needs of a budding new generation of learners instead of try to dismiss the obvious.

I also would be remiss without mentioning the great ONTL instructors. Imagine that I literally never met any of my instructors in person until I was well into my third class, but they were always available to me when I was having seemingly insurmountable problems. Kudos in particular to Jan Engle----she was always there giving me words of encouragement and spurring me forward when I was feeling defeated and unsure of my abilities. Kudos also to Jan for designing such an exemplary series of classes---the honors her work has received are well deserved. Who cannot ultimately prosper with such great role models?

I know that I am still in the infancy stages as an online instructor, but I am truly amazed at what I have learned in just four short terms---everything from a myriad of new technologies to a wealth of information on effective pedagogy and everything else imaginable in between.

Granted this series of classes is not for “sissies”, and I would be a liar if I did not say that this has been the most frustrating series of classes that I have ever taken. Those without patience and tenacity need not apply. But for those who persevere, there is so much to appreciate and so many exciting reasons to imagine what lie in the future. I am already anxious to gain more skills and move from building my meager cyber learning cottage toward constructing cyber learning cathedrals.

For all of my optimism you may say I’m a dreamer, but I am not the only one . . . (using Imagine by J. Lennon)
Just------
Imagine there's no textbooks
It's easy if you try
No desks to seat us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Joining to solve the earth’s ills...

Imagine there's no third world countries
It isn't hard to do
No one’s thoughts unheeded
And no exclusion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday the cyber world will be this
And the global world will be as one

Imagine no lack of learning opportunities
I wonder if you can
No need for physical boundaries
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing with each other in a cyber world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday the cyber world will be this
And the global village will live as one

Where Is She??

Winter languishes and lingers into March
Her long, icy tentacles cling to the pines for dear life
The crystalline strands of her hair hang from the gables
She clutches at the landscape refusing to leave
No dance, no sounds, no warm breath of the first days of spring are evident
No birds are harkening the maiden’s arrival
No kaleidoscope of color is evidenced from the crocuses that must force their way through
The whitewash winter has wrought
Frigid winds still snap at the sunrise
Warning spring that winter is not ready for retreat
Even though
The woodpile has waned
The car is chalked with salt
The lake is still glassed over
And the crows scavenge for the last kernels of last year’s crop beneath the snow
Where is the fair maiden lingering?
Why does she not even tease us with one day of her warmth?
No wave of robins returned
No cats curled in the sun on the porch
No gaggle of geese on the lake
No redwing blackbird calls at dusk
Just ashen white silence
Where is she? Has the maiden forsaken us this year?

C. Schrage

Something tells me there will always be a new boulder in the road to climb over . . .

THE BUZZ ON CLASS IV IS . . .

"Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway."------Mary Kay Ash

I have to admit I feel very simpatico with the bumble bee. When I started this series of courses, I really was not “aerodynamically” suited for this environment. I had never taught an online class and knew very little about pedagogy or learning objectives, let alone designing a course. I had had quite a bit of experience as an online student and I had definite opinions about what I liked and disliked about my online courses, but that did not give me the tools or any where with-all to be an online instructor.

I felt very intimidated by my peers with a litany of teaching experience when I entered class one. How could I possibly hope to soar with so much to learn? It seemed improbable to say the least. “To bee or not to bee?” that was the question as I started the cyber journey through the certificate program. I readily admit there have been moments of indescribable exhilaration and moments of extreme frustration as I have bumbled(Notice a pattern in the word usage here?) and stumbled my way through this series of class experiences.

I was horrified by the prospect of leading the class in a synchronous session in Class II and I had heard horror stories about the difficulty of the design process in Class III. Through all of the trials I have experienced, I just kept these buzz words(can’t help myself now) in my head----YOU CAN DO THIS-----ROME WAS NOT BUILT IN A DAY. The fear I once had for my fellow classmates became admiration and I also realized how much I was gaining from reading and listening to their own personal tribulations. The instructors also were more than willing to assist me and recount the solutions they had found for their own sticky online classroom issues and experiences. Every time I have felt overwhelmed or uncertain I have just made a beeline to my teacher or a fellow classmate for clarification.

Now, I find myself standing on the precipice of assuming a new flight pattern for class IV---the final class in this series. I look back at the first three classes and contemplate all that I have gained and I look forward confident that this class will also be a great learning experience for me. Ideas are swarming in my head. I look forward to learning how to properly actually generate my first online workshop for our student population. I look forward to learning about many new and unfamiliar tools and technologies that will help me to “flesh out” my class in a positive and inviting manner. I am very aware of my novice status in these endeavors and I am also aware that creating a viable workshop will be an ongoing, dynamic endeavor that will be continuous long after this series of classes is completed as I continue to comb the web for new modalities.

However, I can promise you that you will hear more from me in the future because I have been “stung” with a passion for the cyber environment since the first day I entered the realm and I will not be content to just hover on the fringes. I intend to keep humming along, choosing to focus on the flowers and remaining undaunted by any weeds that may spring up along the way. All in all, I expect this to be one “honey” of an experience----(you must excuse me I did not start out intending to drone on and on) AND even though I may not be aerodynamically correct for this endeavor I will make up for those shortcomings with my passionate feelings for cyber learning/teaching. So "BEE-WARE" cyber world because here I come!