What this means to me

I have posted blogs about my computer background, and how I hope to teach using the skills that we will acquire in the future classes.

How I will use Instructional Computing

As I have commented in previous blogs, I really feel like a fish out of water in this class.  I am not a professional educator or teacher, and I do not work in a job where planning curriculum is a primary task.  I am a technology professional, and I have built my career around learning new computer systems and networks as they become available.  I am usually one of the first to pick up the manual for a new system, and I soon start playing around and picking up the details of how it works.  

This is where I discovered my other passion.  I enjoy explaining these details to other people.  I have found this to be a very powerful skill, especially in the field of computers, where too often ideas are expressed in technical concepts and jargon.  Most neophyte users are turned off by the extra complexity.  I have always tried to explain technical concepts in very non-technical terms, especially by using analogies or stories that explain the concept.  I have used this to teach Microsoft classes, and post secondary classes at St. Louis University.

Although I am currently a Network Manager, we still need to explain computer system to our clients, in this case, insurance agents who sell our insurance.  These agents need to learn how to use our software to issue insurance quotes, sell policies, and process claims.  We currently bring these people out to our headquarters to train them, which is a big time commitment.  I hope to start using this course material to provide these courses remotely and save time.  Over time I believe that these kinds of classes will mostly replace the in person classes that we currently provide.

Longer term I would like to apply these concepts in a more traditional education environment, possibly by developing curriculum for a university or technical school.  In particular I think online learning would be a great way to teach about technology.  Here too I see the future having more remote learners, so online education will be a critical instructional tool.

Computer History for John Lyons

The first computer that I worked on was a Texas Instruments TRS-80 back in 1978.  I was in 7th grade, and my Algebra teacher was an early adopter of technology.  The base model had 4 Kilobytes of RAM, and the advanced one had 16 Kilobytes.  The computers used cassette tapes to store programs and information, with the information coded as a series of tones, and it took forever to load anything.  I remember having to pay very close attention to the tape counters, to make sure you started loading a program from the right spot.  This was also the time of Star Wars, and my favorite game involved piloting a Y-wing fighter through a trench to hit a spot on the end.  Of course the Y wing was the actual text letter Y, and it moved back and forth through the "Trench", made up of letter I's.  It was actually pretty advanced for the day, as most other games were text based and involved lots of reading.  Graphics have come a long way.  Even with these simple experiences I was hooked however, and even though I would not get my own computer for 13 more years, I took every opportunity to use other people's computers.

The first computer that I built was an IBM PS2 that came without a hard drive.  It was 1987, and a friend showed me how to add a HUGE 20 Megabyte hard drive, and we used the computer to run the reservation system for our office at UW-Stevens Point.  I also spent significant time in the computer labs, and was introduced to the wonders of networking.

By 1991 I had gotten a job building PCs to order for customers in a small Milwaukee PC store.  The first computer that I built for myself was a 486DX running at 33 Megahertz.  By know the RAM had increased to 16 Megabytes, and the hard drives were up to 120 Megabytes.  I remember that it was a big day when Windows 3.1 came out, and the PC finally got a graphical user interface that worked (well sort of).  I also started installing networks for businesses around the area, and began to investigate Novell and Microsoft certifications.

Fast forward another 19 years and I am now a manager of a computer network.  I have worked on all sorts of PCs, Macs, Unix workstations, and even mainframes.  I had obtained many Microsoft and Cisco certifications, most of which have now expired.  The changes in technology have been astounding.  With the advent of 3-D displays and mobile network, I can only guess at what the next 20 years will bring.

Online learning and student/instructor interaction

Our second week of our Master's program brought some additional technical and logistical challenges.

The first was in the video conference for our study group.  Although three of us were able to join the video conference without issue, we had a problem when Crystal joined.  She was able to send audio, but the video image was just blank.  After talking for several minutes we were able to figure out that she had opened Google Chat first, then had opened Tokbox, which is what we were using.  The Google session was using the camera and preventing Tokbox from sending an image.  After closing Google we were able to see Crystal's image and complete our discussion.

The logistical challenge was in scheduling my video conference with Louis.  Due to a conflict our original time did not work.  It took several emails, but we were eventually able to locate another time.

The them that jumped out at me in both these instances was that Online learning will require a lot of student responsibility and accountability.  Because of the nature of online learning, there will be many challenges like those above.  Students will need to think through how to solve these problems, often without direct access to the instructor.  Not all students will be up for this challenge.

As instructors we will need to take extra steps to make sure we are available for the students to help them in these times.  It is now obvious why Louis stressed that we should not struggle, but should should just call his cell when we get stuck.  Online learning will require instructors to provide several ways for the students to contact them, and to repeat this information throughout the course.