Celestia

I played with the celestia software over the last few days. Initially I was furstrated with the installation process. I've been doing all of my work for this program on my mac. When I went to download the mac version I got it downloaded fine but had no clue what a .dmg file was. I googled it and found some kind of software that would help me unload this file onto my computer. I still had some problems. I was frustrated so I looked in blackboard and saw that tara had some problems she fixed with downloading the low res version. I decided to download the windows low-res version on my pc since there wasn't one for the mac.

I noticed my feelings of frustration mounting. I also realized that this is probably what many teachers feel about "good" software that they have problems downloading, immediately their views are tainted and those are hard to overcome. Things like, if it's this hard, it better be worth it, crossed my mind. ALso, being a fairly tech savvy person, I noticed my doubts mounting as well about myself. Maybe I'm not as savvy as I thought, thoughts like these crossed my mind. The other thing that crossed my mind was, macs are supposed to be easier. Although I eventually figured out the mac install, it was by no means easy and required many more steps than the pc install. This was interesting, I think there are probably other mac formats that would be easier to install such as stuff it or something.

It occurred to me while I ran into the poor performance on my pc (which as I said is quite old but functions on most od my other programs pretty well) it occurred to me that although this seems like it could be an awesome tool for school and particularily earth science classes, I don't know if most schools have the specs on their computers to do this program any justice. Again, clearly this should be something education software companies consider, which I'm sure they do. But it drove home how important this would be especially for the "RE-purchase" of any software or renewals.

When I eventually got to playing with the program, my older windows machine did it NO justice at all, the graphics (even on the low res version) were awful. The mac program definately was cool. I spent some time going through the recommended "cookbook" and that got me oriented with the program. I also ran the demo. After doing this, I felt like I had enough skills to play around a little with the program some on my own. I tried to engage my 3 year old he was a little interested although I realize this was kind of out of his league. I did think it was very cool, however.It triggered a memory I have of my 8th grade earth science class where we studied stars and one extra credit assignment we could do was set up a camera in our backyard where we delayed the exposure of the big dipper to see the changes over time. It was very impressionable for me and something that stuck with me. Looking at that now, I realize that engageing me in that process where I go to my own backyard with my dad, figure out the camera, set it up and then develop the pictures was monumental in my science education. I can remember it like it was yesterday, and a very pleasent memory, I felt so mature and smart and it was a cool bonding thing I did with my dad too. Thinking about that makes me remember how fun I thought it was to do that, and I didn't really think about the fact that I was learning.

A New Point of View

I'm struggling with writing this so as not to incriminate myself...

As I sat in the train the trainer session for the new educational software it occurred to me how much had changed since I started this program. Having just read Frank Smith's Learning and Forgetting and reading Children's machine, the thoughts about learning and breaking information down into chunks so small it becomes meaningless resinated with me. How do I reconcile these feelings inside me with making a living. I'm not sure, I'm going to keep moving towards being able to teach what I believe and in the mean time I'll inject what I can into the teaching by example. This I can do immediately, although the actual product will be paradoxal to the method of learning it.

The other thing I noticed was that in my group of trainers I had some great, innovative ideas about collaborating and disseminating the information that I wouldn't ahve had prior to this program. This felt great and satisfying to see an actual change and product of what I had done and experienced come to fruition so quickly. I am so excited to continue to apply these types of things...

Learning about me

I've come to look forward to the blogging and the mental exercise of making the connections. It is truly like exercise for me in that I have to work quite diligently to make sense of the things that have happened and then to connect those things and hence learn from them. But I do see it happening.

One of the things I've really noticed helps me in my business of this program and the rest of my life is to keep taking it a day at a time and to know what I have to do. It seems that I feel like I am much more in control when I at least know what I have to do. It makes me feel like it's more managable. I haven't come up with exactly how to do that but it does occur to me that other people must struggle with this too. Is this such a personal thing though, organization that one couldn't build a generic enough system to make it helpful to everyone or is my life just that much more complex to organize, that I'm not sure of yet.

I also realize the only way to tackle any large project, such as this degree is to break it up into managable chunks with corresponding deadlines so time doesn't slip away and I don't get behind. It occurs to me that this is a very trasferrable skill in any regard, breaking something large down in order to make it doable. I think of training for a marathon as a good example, although I've never done that.

So I try to spend a little time the night before or the morning of to organize my day and layout what needs to get done. I have also learned that because the organization factor seems to be the backbone for me to make all of these things happen, when something goes awry in my schedule, it does tend to throw me for a loop. I'm working on that, not letting a little wave or a big tidal wave for that matter, throw me off course, to keep tredging my way forward and not to lose sight of the goal. I don't however, want to become so single minded that I don't recognize an opportunity to take another path or road that comes my way or presents it self.

Not as skilled at juggling as I thought

It seems like I can juggle several balls ok but that blogging is the ball I keep throwing up so high that it takes longer to get down to my hands than the others, and therefore I keep dropping it.

Not a skilled or rather practiced blogger, it's hard for me to take the time to blog. I feel like I'm a fairly good juggler but this month has been tough for me (Sept). In the name of balance I've lessened my load in some other areas of my life but as everyone keeps saying, life keeps happening...

This past week I found an entire thread in my arp class i had missed. My heart sunk as I thought I was keeping up or almost keeping up and I was so mad at myself. Then, I had planned to work on that all weekend and I had to leave town for a funeral getting back late Monday night. Now my 17 month old son is sick and I leave on a trip tomorrow. I'm feeling like I'm letting people down but I know after talking to lots of others that everyone is feeling at least somewhat overwhelmed.

I'm learning that I have to live and work in the moment and just keep doing the best I can. A couple of quotes stay in my head, first, "How do you eat a whale? One bite at a time." The second, "Life will happen." So I'm learning that I get overwhelmed with the big picture but one of the things that helps me to manage that overwhelmed feeling is to break things down into smaller tasks and manage thos over time so one huge thing doesn't sneak up on me. I'm working on exactly what the best way to manage all these are. This will definately be important for me as I continue to work on many projects and have an active family and social life. The elements I need to keep track of these are:
1 - have with me all/most the time
2 - easy to separate into diff't projects and break projects down into chunks
3 - seperate personal, school business
4 - look ahead and reschedule items
I've toyed with lists in my blackberry but there doesn't seem to be a good function for organizing them other than by due date. I've had a planner but it seems so archaic and when things change it seems like I'm spending so much time crossing out or rewriting things. I've also had a note book so I can design the paper and write how, where I'd like. Although I'm still rewriting, this seems like I might try this again for a while. I'm trying to think if there is a tech tool to do this with. I have a project manager but that seems to cumbersome and detailed, overkill for organizing my day to day life. Is there something out there that does this? Anyone know, please let me know. Maybe there is a market for this tool?I've come to the conclusion my calendar is best on the bb but now i need to work on my lists and project management.

I notice this is directly connected to how I organize my thoughts. It also occurs to me that my thoughts and task management tends to be pretty linear. I have so many ideas of concepts and projects but I'm not totally sure I break them down to tasks the most effective way. In fact, I've noticed that I LOVE coming up with the concepts and ideas and discussions of them but then dread the day to day tasks and completion of them. I'm learning I'm more of an idea person. How does this relate to my linear task managent. Is all task management linear? Do all people try to make linear representations of their thoughts and tasks when it comes down to completing the parts that make a whole? Seems like this might start to delve into the right brain/left brain stuff. Are creative people's minds geared and organized very differently when it comes to working through a project. I think Susan is doing some of this in her ARP. I'm going to research her progress a little. It also occurs to me that knowing our groups arps not only gives us direct access and benefit to our own arp and support of it, but also a fairly thorough knowledge of several other's arps therefore increasing the chances we might integrate some of these changes or ideas into our workplaces as well as our own ARP, making the ripple effect seem more like waves. :)