I thought I should give my thoughts about week 2 of University of the People, so here it goes!
Lets start off with what I find really annoying shall we? This week is the first week of doing peer assessments which I am fine with but I am still frustrated with the lack of proper English skills that many of the students have. When I grade the assignments of several other students, I often end up having to interpret what they are trying to say because of missing words in their typing, poor punctuation skills and problems with people copying and pasting their answers from various word processors which can put in a bunch of strange style information and make things look really strange. The other problem I have with the peer assessments is the system itself. When you go to grade an assignment, the screen is split between the grading sheet on top and the assignment on the bottom which would probably be OK except for some very annoying bugs such as after you have finished and click a link within the page, it just goes to the link in the top half of the page and the submission stays on the bottom half of the page. In order to get where you are going and have it show up properly, you must open the link in a new tab or refresh the page completely or something stupid that I shouldn’t have to do. The language used on the system can also be confusing at times too and some questions have no relevancy to the submission which makes grading even harder.
I also still find the whole journal thing completely retarded and the journal system is by far the worst I have ever seen. Apparently people don’t remember it or don’t like it either because the teachers have put up reminders telling people to make submissions in them as it is part of our final grade because it allows teachers to track our progress and such. Dear teachers, if you want to track my progress and know what I am thinking, read this blog and listen to my podcast as I do not want to use your horrible journal system.
Now that the ranting is over, lets talk about the good and just plain interesting. I find it rather interesting that besides the discussion forum which we are required to participate in, there are two other forums that are for the class, one of which is without the teacher and one is with. One would think that assignment related stuff would stay in the one with the teacher and the other one without the teacher would have a huge array of topics but it seems to stay on the topic of school which I find rather curious. I will have to try to change that this week. It is good to see a decent bit of participation in the forums, even if some of them are hard to understand due to the fact that English is not the first language of many of the students. As for the good, the workload has picked up now that people are starting to get familiar with the system which is good although I am not sure how much I am really getting out of the work. The intro to online learning class I learn stuff from but that is just because it is getting me familiar with the system and such but I am not sure what I am learning from the English composition class. It doesn’t feel so much like there is teaching going on so much as read this and do this assignment. I guess I am used to this because that was how my English classes were all through high school, almost entirely busy work and no real teaching or learning. Hopefully that will change but I am used to it if it doesn’t.
Anyway, those are my thoughts for week 2. I will post my thoughts for week 3 around the middle of next week since new school weeks start on Thursday which I still find very strange.
I come bearing bad news, Syfy has decided to push the airing of Battlestar Galactica’s The Plan to 2010. The movie was supposed to air this fall but for some reason, they have decided to push it back. I expect this is likely to help DVD sales.
The BSG The Plan movie is still expected to be released on DVD on October 27th so at least that date hasn’t changed. I expect that by moving the air date back several months at least, it will help DVD sales. Considering I had planned on live blogging the airing of the movie, I find this rather annoying. Since I am sure that all of the BSG fans will have watched The Plan by the time it airs on TV, I am officially announcing that I will not be live blogging th movie like I did with the TV show. If there is enough interest, I might change my mind but at this point I don’t see that happening.
What do you think about the pushing back of the movie and why do you think they are doing it?
Earlier today, I was doing some shopping at OfficeMax when I noticed the old Circuit City store was still sitting empty with an available for rent sign on the side of it. It was at this moment that I had a rather big idea. The old Circuit City store would make a great place for a big LAN party!
I have always wanted to host my own LAN party after attending a good number of them over there years that have ranged from a couple dozen people to over 700 people and I think the old Circuit City store would be the perfect place! Whenever I have thought about it before, I have never had a decent sized place available for rent or that didn’t at least charge a fortune. Now, I think I have finally found the place although I haven’t a clue whether the building owners would be interested in renting the place out for a weekend for something like a LAN party. It is certainly an idea worth investigating.
The next time I am over there where I can get the phone number, I will try calling the owners and see how much they would charge to do something like that assuming they are willing to in the first place. If the price isn’t too outrageous, then I will see about trying to find some furniture and equipment as well as some volunteers and sponsors for an event. I’m not real sure but I would guess that place would be able to hold 150-200 LAN party goers.
Would this be something you would be interested in? This is of course in the Pueblo, CO area so travel may be required depending on where you are, but from my experience, that never seems to matter from most people and I have seen many come from across the country just to go to a LAN party. If you would be interested in something like this and especially if you would be willing to help and have some good networking equipment, let me know in the comments!
I just came across this video and thought it was worth sharing.
A man by the name of Jason Hargett made a 1-in-45,000 chance hole-in-one at the Mark Eaton Celebrity Golf Classic in Utah to win $1 million. Apparently he hadn’t even planned on going golfing that day because of a sore wrist but decided to tough it out, borrow his brothers glove and then proceed to win $1 million. Check out the video:
Is it just me or has this Kanye West meme become really annoying really fast? I understand it and what he did and how rude it was but I think it is time for people to move on.
I am getting rather annoyed that when I go to TweetDeck to see what important things are going on, I have to sift through a ton of “I’m gonna let you finish…” tweets. When a meme is dramatically hampering productivity, it is time for it to die. I don’t know about you, but it has only been a few days and I already hate this meme much more than the Rickroll.
I’ve never thought much of Kanye to begin with, but I thought he was scum the night he pulled his little stunt which as far as I can tell was probably a ploy to get on the first night of the Jay Leno show, but now I think he is a cancer on humanity for inflicting this horrible meme on us!
I just thought I would give everybody a quick heads up on what is going on with all of my hobby projects from my podcasts and blogs to my Android apps, so here it goes!
First, lets talk podcasts. The Global Geek News is doing great and although we basically were forced to miss two weeks last month we are finally back in our groove and putting out some amazing shows. Unless something comes up, we record every Monday night and I post the show on Tuesday morning. If you haven’t given it a listen yet, I highly recommend heading to GlobalGeekNews.com and giving the show a try. I am always open to constructive feedback so if you have any comments or suggestions, let me hear them! Speaking of podcasts, I was hoping to have brought back the Geek News Daily podcast but unfortunately my life is too busy at this time but I hope to bring it back in the future. For those who are wondering what is going on with the Unofficial Mahalo Podcast, I turned ownership of that over my former Global Geek News Co-host, Larry who is doing some great stuff related to Mahalo and should be able to make great use of it.
Now, lets talk Android apps! As many of you know, a few weeks ago I released my first Android app onto the Market called Master Memo. It is a great app for taking notes and even taking audio notes when necessary. I have released several bug fixes to fix some things that didn’t show up until after I released the app and as far as I know, all should be working now although there is a possibility of one crash bug lingering out there which I can’t seem to replicate. The app is now kind of on the back burner but I am well underway on the next version which will allow you to tag your notes for better organization. I am also investigating doing video and even picture notes with it but I think those are a little ways off.
I have started a second app today which I don’t yet have a name for but it will be a conversion tool. What kind of conversion tool? It will allow you to convert Microsoft and Nintendo points to money and money to points so that you have a better idea of how much you are spending on that song, movie, game or whatever. I also intend for it to allow you to purchase more points from an online retailer, most likely Amazon since I already have an affiliate account set up with them. It shouldn’t take me too long to make this so I am expecting it to be in testing within the next week and released shortly there after. I am always looking for app ideas, so if you have any apps for Android that you would like to see, let me know!
Finally, lets talk blogging! I am now starting to blog here regularly again which is great. I hope to post all kinds of random things from videos and pictures to what is going on with me in the future to hopefully get some kind of reader base. I am also trying to blog as much as I can over at Global Geek News Blog which is where I really put thought into what I write about anything and everything technology related. If you don’t subscribe to it already, I highly recommend you do so if you are looking for some great opinions and advice on technology! I also report on technology over at TechVi which you should certainly check out although I fear that if my life doesn’t calm down a bit, that I might not be writing for them for much longer but I hope that isn’t the case.
Anyway, this update is running longer than expected so I will end it here and do another one in the near future!
I began classes at the new University of the People on Thursday and I thought I would give some first impressions based on what I have seen so far. To start, it isn’t always easy to understand what people have to say because many of them are from countries all over the world who don’t have English as their first language. Most of the time I can figure out what they are trying to say but it isn’t easy. Considering good English skills were required to attend the school and an essay written in English to get accepted, I am kind of surprised at how poorly some write it.
The user interface for students isn’t bad but it could be better. Having 3 different message boards with various scope but similar names is kind of confusing. It would be nice if they used some more user friendly message board software anyway but for a school that is just starting out, I suppose I can’t be too picky. It would be nice to know which users are students and which are instructors and staff without them having to say so though.
This week has seemed a bit easy but I suppose that is to be expected for the first week of classes and one class that is an introduction to the online learning environment. Honestly, I could do with much more than 2 classes since I could probably accomplish a weeks worth of work in a couple of hours. Hopefully the work load picks up in the coming weeks. Speaking of the workload, apparently we are expected to keep some sort of journal about the school work that we do and our thoughts about it and stuff. Personally, I find the idea kind of stupid. If I want to write down my thoughts and stuff, that is what this blog is for. I think it is even more dumb that it is graded by teachers.
So far I can’t speak too highly of the school but things are just getting started and we are still in the get to know you phase so hopefully in the next week or two things will pick up. I think this school has a lot of promise and I hope it delivers on that promise.
Sorry it has been so many months since I have blogged on here! After Battlestar Galactica ended, I stopped blogging here for some reason and focused my writing skills on the Global Geek News Blog and the awesome tech news site TechVi.com. I have decided to focus more on this blog because some exciting things are starting to happen, mainly I am going back to school starting today!
For those who haven’t heard, I am one of the few students out of thousands of applicants to get into the brand new online school University of the People. I am looking to finish getting my Computer Science degree after having been out of school for just over 2 years. Just a quick little bit about the school, it is a tuition free institution that is open to anybody around the globe that speaks English and it is focused on the social networking angle of education. Right now it is only for those seeking a computer science degree or a business degree but they look to expand in the future. Anyway, since they are a new school who is opening its doors for the first time today and is very different from any school ever created, I am going to blog every bit of my experience on here. I don’t know if I will have daily updates about it, but I expect to have some updates at least once or twice a week among everything else that I plan on blogging about.
Speaking of things I plan on blogging about, I have decided that I am going to shift the focus of this blog slightly and make it about everything that is on my mind that doesn’t fit anywhere else that I write. Everything from a cool YouTube video I have seen to my rants about the idiot construction workers that make my commute a nightmare, I am going to be putting it on here. Some posts will be long, some will be short but I want this to be an uncensored place where I can put everything that is going on with me and my thoughts about the world around me. I can’t promise I will post everyday because my life is already hectic as it is without school, but I will do my best. I am hoping to juggle all of my current projects and hobbies while going back to school but I don’t know just how successful I will be with that.
Since I am very tired and need to go to bed, I will save some updates on things like my podcasts until the next post which should come sometime in the next 24 hours. There is a lot to talk about and catch everybody up on so stay tuned! One last thing, although I do know that the BSG movie, The Plan will be out on DVD before it airs on TV, I still plan on live blogging the tv airing for those who are still interested since I promised to do it when the show ended earlier this year.
RSS