Skype Session

Good morning!

This morning was my very first interaction with Skype. My husband set it up for me, which is probably a form of cheating but I was working on my other assignments and time got away from me. He also gave me a headset/microphone combo to use as well. I did test my microphone before the conference by calling my dad this morning, but as the actual school conference got underway, I believe the combo was my downfall. As the meeting went on, my headset was working against me; the sound kept switching from my right to left ear and the volume would randomly increase!! I appreciate everyone's willingness to put up with my typing instead of talking. I pride myself on my ability to "chat" online but seemed to be having technical difficulties today - I think I am getting old and am less able to multi-task!

I really enjoyed the session today. In the beginning when I signed up for my sessions, I was a little more excited about Wimba because I have used it a couple times at work. I was uncertain about Skype, but I can definitely see the benefits of using it. I might end up using it for more personal use, but the conversation today was great. We covered a lot of relevant topics for Distance Education and I really appreciate that our professors took the time to give us some synchronous learning experience for our course.

I also learned a lot about my classmates. Paul and I seemed a little bit more reserved in speaking, or it seemed. We chimed in with answers but not as frequently as Simone and Tomeatha. This might have been a good reflection of our participation in a regular classroom. Everyone had a lot of great ideas and follow-up and the discussion did veer off point a couple times but it was a great learning experience for all. We also had a quick Q&A session with the professors concerning some of the assignments. I am very impressed with how much we covered during the session. I know I added to some of the confusion with my typing, but hopefully I can get a new microphone before our Wimba session so this can be avoided. I hope I did not distract from the learning process.

Side note: I did want to give up when I realized my microphone was not working, but the topics were interesting and I did not want to give up when everyone had taken time out of their weekends for this conference.

I want to say thank you to everyone, especially Gila and Jim, for a great session today!

Introduction

Welcome to my blog! I plan to use this for more than education, but at the moment I am setting this up for use in one of my classes.

The address of my blog may have you scratching your head right now, but if you knew me - you would understand! This is a blended name of mine and my husband's creation, and one that is very unique as far as I can tell.

I am currently enrolled at UMUC in a dual degree program for Distance Education. My current course is OMDE 603. I am struggling through some of the course material and trying to get back into the swing of things after taking 3 years off of school. It is difficult coming back to school and I have more challenges in my schedule than I did back then, so it has been an adjustment.

Stay tuned for more updates! (I was very tempted to post this under the wingdings font but assumed that everyone would then stop reading my posts...hmmm)

-Aloma