It's 2012 spring quarter at Edmonds Community College, and here I sit one year after completing spring quarter 2011 classes in Spanish and piano. Why? I am finishing up seven credits needed to renew my teaching credential, a requirement of every teacher in order to teach in Washington state public school classrooms. (School Days, School Daze, April 10, 2011)
Returning to a regular college classroom after fifty years was an eye opening experience a year ago (see blog), and provided a lesson in humility as I bumbled my way around campus where everyone seemed to know where to go and what to do. But I made it with a 4.0, a love and small skill in piano, and the rudiments ,though not fully internalized , of a new language. (Mexican Standoff in a Guaymas Walmart, January 1, 2012)
This quarter I am continuing with piano, and also taking five credits in computer fundamentals. Feeling a little smug, I breezed through registration, got my books at the bookstore ( sticker shock notwithstanding) and found parking and both buildings with ease.
It's the third week in the quarter and I am struck again by the ease of navigating the campus and finding any help I need with my classes. Example: The piano class has a free tutor just a phone call away. I learned that over twenty locations have computers available for those in need. One of them, a tutorial center in Mukilteo Hall, has tutors available to help with specific course needs. You merely sign in, find an available computer, put your name, computer number and course number on a white board, and wait for help. It comes quickly in the form of a friendly person with answers to your particular questions.
Perhaps the most significant difference between today's classroom and those of bygone days is the prevalent use of technology. Back then I had a portable manual typewriter on which I could type 80+ words a minute. Now our household has no fewer than two apples and four pc computers in use at one time or another. This includes two outdated laptops which sometimes seem like old friends when I am struggling with the newer technology available. But having a computer and understanding it are two different things to a person riddled with technological anxiety. Thus, I am taking BSTEC 130, a hybrid class which will introduce me to computer concepts, applications, HTML and the Internet using Windows and Microsoft Office, including Word, Access, Excel, and Powerpoint. Whew!!
It's Saturday morning and I checked "My Edmonds CC" where, after signing in on something called "blackboard", I looked at my class requirements. I then took a computer quizz and instanly received a grade. "Ahem." I took it twice and got 60%. I think I will take the pass-fail grade option.
Fifty years ago we went to class, studied, took our tests, and socialized. I remember it as fun, punctuated by periods of hard work and panic. Today, it is hard work, some panic, and not much socializing, even with my poor abandoned husband waiting patiently nearby. I am thinking that is probably true of many other students, at least in the business information technology department. If you don't stay on top of it you are left behind. And in the bigger picture, it's even more true. Without understanding technology and its importance in our lives today, we will be left behind as individuals and as a country. I am thinking back nostalgically on the "good old days" at the mid-century University of Washington. Now I find myself wondering what the 21st century students' good old days will look like. No doubt the kind of computers, cell phones, and techy toys will be a large part. But enough. Now I must move on to Technology in Action where I am learning that technology has taken over business, education, gaming, law enforcement, the military, medicine, the automotive industry, sports, psychology and agriculture. Nanotechnology is on the horizon. One big challenge of a digital society will be that of ethics. Another will be the growing "digital divide" separating the "knows" and the "know nots" with respect to technology. My head is spinning, but I am going to stay the course. More later.
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