A vision of students today

Here it is, May 29, 2017, only 3 weeks left of this second college life. This weeks assignment is to watch a video titled "A vision of students today" and post my thoughts on it. So lets begin. Thanks to the internet and a little website called YouTube.com, I was able to track down a video produced by an Anthropology Professor by the name of Michael Wesch who taught at Kansas State University. The video appears to have been made in 2007. The premise of the video appears to focus on college life from the students prospective. How they multi task, function on little sleep, purchase books and never open them. Some speak on post college life, being $20,000 in debt, having a job where none exists today. How the old fashion way of teaching needs to be put to bed.  As one of the "old guys" in this class I can see the point on some but not all of what these students are trying to convey. In my opinion, the saying "what is old, is new again". Yes, technology opened many doors that were just dreams the first time I went to school but for some of the statements I watched, these issues have been around for a long time, just in a different form. For instance, most all of us left College with some sort of debt, some of us went on to a profession that was brand new when we started down that road. We all seemed to multi task, even without Facebook and 300+ TV channels. For example, I was a new Dad, flying every other day for Uncle Sam and taking classes when ever I was home. Yes, thanks to the internet, the world of online school really sped things up. If students and teachers today find that common ground between technology and lecture we may just find that the area of the brain that processes the important "critical thought". Who knows?  It may actually make us smarter as a society. What really got me thinking was how this video that was made in 2007 is relative to today, ten years later. From what I can tell of that time span, the world of technology and social media has increased but in is nearing  a plateau. Maybe now is a good time to reevaluate how our society teaches and takes that leap into the future. Maybe we do not need the expensive books as I am sure they are all online. Maybe watching videos and posting your thoughts is the way to go. As I said earlier, "whats old, is new again". When I say old, I speak of how we learn. When I say new, I am thinking of the way we learn. In my opinion, college is much easier than 25 years ago and much cheaper when it comes to pencil lead, erasers, and chalk!

Another week, a little smarter

Here it is, May 19, 2017. I am two weeks into my "late in life" college experience and this is my first in a series of thoughts on the process. After retiring from 24 years in the United States Air Force, I decided to go back to school versus back to the work force for a couple of reasons. It would make me smarter, it would help with the future workforce, with my GI Bill it was free!

 So here I am, a married 45 year old man with a wife, two kids, two dogs, two cats and a rather large house payment. No problem! I already have 4 associate degrees, a teaching certification, and have been a manager in my squadron of 300 people. This college stuff will be easy, or will it? 

Fast forward to the present time, and I sit here on my couch doing home work. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks but in the two weeks I have been doing this school thing I can almost prove this theory wrong. I am taking two classes during this compressed semester. Astronomy and Creative Writing. I picked those with the thinking that I love science and in my 9,000 hours of flying I have had lots of hours flying over the ocean staring at the clear night sky so it would be cool to take a science course to find out what is really out there. We are just getting started but I have already learned more than I ever thought I would. Space is more than the Starship Enterprise and Captain Kirk! 

As for Creative writing, I chose that due to the fact that "English" was the only course I successfully passed without ever stepping foot into a classroom. I took it as a "CLEP" test and blew it out of the water.  So what do I think so far on this writing course? First impression is, fast pace! There is no time for procrastination. If you snooze you lose. Lots of homework. While I wish we as a class to go over the formats and structure a little more and previous papers done incorrectly a little less, I understand the theory behind it. In the Air Force we called this a "Fire Hose" course and I see in the civilian world its the same. If I could give one complaint, it would be that all the papers are on the subject of social media and various websites in particular. Again, "old dog, new tricks". I am not very social media savvy but this course will get me out of that bubble and on to the net. If I have to find the silver lining, it would be that my kids can no longer make fun of me! So there I am, two weeks in and getting up to speed! Look out all you super smart people, Phil is coming through! 

This is a test post to the first blog. Much more to follow