Deep Thoughts.....

In my current incarnation as a teacher of prison inmates, the skills (if my limited ability can be called skills) I've learned are nearly useless. I can envision myself, one day, leaving to enter the 'real world' of conventional high schools or higher level learning in my field. I think that I have a new conception of the value that these types of medians can provide in an educational, commercial or social setting. This week, I've commented on Brian and Danny's blogs.

Lessons Learned

During the course of the class, I learned an enormous amount. When I walked in, I was able to stumble through basic networking, office applications and generic surfing the net. Webpage development and blogging were nothing but words that I could define, but that was it. HTML were just 4 letters of 26 in the alphabet. This week, I commented on Bryce and Jeff's sites.

video site

I like sites using video in a limited fashion. While I have broadband, it has slowed down severly after Time-Warner's takeover of Adelphia and a video intensive site can run fairly slowly. I enjoy Nascar and Fox News Channel . Other than that, youtube is about the only other place that I view video. The nascar and fox news site are convenient because they start with text and graphics and give you the ability to choose to view video. You tube is interesting, but seems to be difficult to categorize files at times. Since individuals upload all these, I guess you can't expect alot. This week, I commented on Conner and Graff's blogs.

podcasts

I used I-tunes to search podcasts and subscribed to a racing podcast titled hung throttle. In searching for auto repair information (my career field) I also found NPR's car talk column as well. Both of these seem to augment news sites well. I enjoy the car talk columns because they help me relate technical vehicle information in common language and that helps me to relate to new students without talking over their heads. This week, I commented on Jerry
and Krystle's blogs.

Delicious

My delicious screen name is bsp43143. That was the screen name yahoo suggested way back in 1995 and I've just continued using it. This week, I commented on Josh and Karl's blogs. I enjoy reading this blog and this blog.

Open Source Code

I believe that fair use is a beneficial concept to use when growing an emerging resource. By allowing an unlimited number of individuals to work on promoting a science, piece of work or whatever you are using, there is a virtual worldwide pool of knowledge contributed to it. When an article, movie, or software is freely shared, not only is the material grown exponentially, it is essentially freely distributed for all to see, use and improve. The most notable resource that I thought of was linux. To think that a college student could begin one of the most stable operating systems is very inspirational. This week, I commented on Laslo and Tia's blogs.

Website Plans

The website that I create will be geared towards student/parent access. This will be highly theoretical as none of my students can access the net and many have no parents or no parental involvement. That's kind of part of the reason most of them are in here. I would use the home page as a link to assignments, grades and course activities. Graphics are likely limited to landscapes and logos.
This week, I commented on Adam and Kern's blogs.

Simple Man

I probably don't fit into the mold of this class. I like simple pages without a lot of glitter and glamor. The sites that I appreciate the most are those that get right to the point and don't have a lot of flash. I prefer sites that give me the information that I want without a bunch of graphics to slow down the page loading. One of my favorite news sites is The Drudge Report.
I used to enjoy the nascar home page much more than the current one. The web designers have changed the layout and added video and graphics to the home page. Before it changed, you had to link to another page before there was anything other than text news with links embedded. For my last favorite site, I'll choose snopes. It is a site that debunks or verifies urban legends and myths. They have it set up straight forward and to the point.
This week, I commented on Elizabeth's post and Melanie's blog.

#1 Self

I am a 36 year old father of four who has been an auto mechanic since shortly after high school. Three years ago, my wife (who teaches high school social studies at a prison) convinced me to take a job teaching auto mechanics in a correctional institution. I have just completed my third year there and passed my Praxis III exam in January of this year. After this quarter, God willing, I will have one course left in order to obtain my initial teaching certificate.
Since my students are unable to access the web, it's benefit to my class is limited to my access to the outside in order to augment my curriculum. I have been 'wired' for 13 years and all of my children grew up using computers and the Internet.
I have not previously designed a web page other than a lame my space page that my wife and kids thrust upon me. It is here: http://www.myspace.com/bradleypierce . The institution where I work can be viewed here: http://www.drc.state.oh.us/Public/loci.htm and the educational service offered inside is detailed at: http://www.drc.state.oh.us/ocss/ocss_home.htm .
I regularly participate in Internet newsgroups including http://www.thumpertalk.com/ , http://service-gm-forum.com/techforum1/ and http://members.iatn.net/forums/read/?f=forum7&i=1, among others.
During this course, I hope to learn to design web pages and become more familiar with many of the software programs that I might utilize in support of my curriculum.
This week, I left comments at http://livingproof077.blogspot.com and at http://prisonteach-tdygert.blogspot.com/