Blast Off

Like a space shuttle's launch, an enormous amount preparation goes into the event. When the launch is successful, it makes all the work worthwhile :-) Same goes for proactively launching a class with students prepared on the first class session instead of wide-eyed and trying to drink from a fire hydrant. IS101-3022, Fall 2020 started with a full roster of 18, with different students joining and dropping off the roster all the way up to and including this past weekend. Of the fourteen students who remained on the roster after our inaugural class session this past Saturday, eleven attended class and participated. The forty-eight hours afterwards saw ten of the eleven working hard and producing results. Two students have completed their coursework for Week 1 ahead of schedule with Matt already working on Week 2. Go Matt go!
Bonus Quiz 2 and A3 Tailored Cover Letter and Resume have been published in Canvas. To see samples of A4 Homepage: Table's Borders NOT Visible: http://albertwu.atwebpages.com/2020-2-IS101-3022/Homepage.htm Table's Borders Visible: http://albertwu.atwebpages.com/2020-2-IS101-3022/Homepage (Borders Visible).htm

What's in Your Portfolio?

Several years ago, I watched a science documentary television series: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. I recently came a cross this inspiring 11 min 13 sec video of an interview with the series' host: My three favorite moments/statements from the video in chronological order: "What's in your portfolio?" "It wasn't passed in 2014. It was passed in 1975 to Neil Tyson, future astronomer." "I become irrelevant."

*****To my IS101-3022 students: be sure to watch the video (try full screen) before commenting on this post.*****
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Tomorrow morning, Saturday, 8/29 is our first live-remote class session using BigBlueButton for virtual meeting. This past week was a flurry of communications and activities! Majority of students are proactive and started their IS101 journey strong :-)

Each of the three moments/statements resonate with me as an educator but the one – modified for IS101 – that I want to ask my students is the first one.

1. For first-time college students and those returning to higher education after a long absence: will you cultivate your skills in prioritizing your time, energy, and resources to meet the new academic obligations in your life?
2. To expedite building your repertoire and earning grades, will you take full advantage of the live and virtual interaction during our designated class times?
3. Will you use all that you will learn from and achieve in IS101 to build a proud digital portfolio (e.g. blog and website)?

All Notified and a Head Start

In past semesters, I would send out my individualized introduction emails with the Syllabus and Bonus Quiz 1 attached on the first day of the semester. To help students prepare for the live-remote modality, I began this effort the weekend before the start of Fall 2020. So far, I have met virtually with Adrian, Anthony, and Matthew. Kudos to Adrian and Anthony for reaching out to me first :-) I will meet with Bridget and John tomorrow evening. I look forward to replies from the other students on the IS101-3022 roster ^_^

Live-Remote IS101-3022 > COVID-19

Two weeks before semester's start, all in-person IS101 courses were converted to live-remote as were a significant portion of the Fall 2020 courses in College of Southern Nevada (CSN). This represents a new learning modality for many people. Live-remote simply means that we will meet via virtual meeting on Saturdays 10 AM to 12:50 PM instead of physically in the classroom during that time. COVID-19 may have denied us the use of our prized classroom, C114, where all desktop computers have dual monitors, but my students can and will adapt!

In Spring 2020, IS101-3025 was abruptly transitioned from in-person to live-remote on March 18. The disruption to everyone's life varied but majority of the students finished their semester strong :-) Some will come back this semester for the opportunity to claim their Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification. I look forward to seeing them again even if only virtually.

Fall 2020 would be the third semester of IS101 using the MOS certification as its course curriculum's industry certification component. This semester would be my twenty third (23rd) year of teaching in higher education, mostly at CSN and almost exclusively IS101 and IT-related courses. The second half of Spring 2020 prepared me for teaching remotely. I wonder how will my Fall 2020 students adapt to live-remote and how high will they soar in digital literacy.

One student, Adrian, reached out to me last week after receiving the notification of in-person to live-remote conversion from the Computer & Information Technology (CIT) Department Chair. The future information technology professional has already achieved a perfect score on Bonus Quiz 1 and is working on A1 Accounts Setup and Professional Communication. I will remotely meet with Adrian tomorrow morning to test our virtual meeting capabilities.

Ingredients for success:

Before the semester begins, I will individually reach out to other students to give them a head start on IS101-3022, Fall 2020 ^_^