Blog Post #1

What About EDM310?

What's the Buzz?

"What in the world does EDM mean, Electronic Dance Music?" These were the words that rang in my ears as I signed up to take EDM310 this past spring. No, of course it doesn't mean Electronic Dance Music!

What does it mean, though? Apparently it means Microcomputing Systems, but all I knew it as was "the blogging class", the class that never sleeps. My roommate had this class last fall, and I had seen how much work she had put into it. Needless to say, I was nervous coming into this class.

To Be Afraid or To Run Screaming?

Due to my prior knowledge of how much time and work this class takes, I was initially afraid that I would not be able to set apart enough time to complete all of my assignments. Along with this class, I have five other classes. I only thought that was bad until I realized some others in the class have six more classes! I've turned my fear into motivation. I honestly wanted to run screaming at first, but I knew I needed to face this challenge head on and head in. My head needs to be fully in each task, and I know I must be dedicated to this class. I am embracing one of the classes mottos, "I don't know. Let's find out!" The "let's" part of that last phrase is what is so important to me and kept me from running. We are not left to do all of this alone. We have an entire lab to back us up! When, not if, I get through this semester, I feel as if I will be prepared to make it through any set of classes.

I was also afraid of honest self reflection and expressing myself via technology. I may be on the path to becoming an English teacher, but I am no creative writer. Even though I do consider myself to know my way around a computer pretty well, that does not mean that I am very good at using one to express myself. I did not understand how any of this would help me in my future classrooms. After having read the project instructions and blog assignments, I am beginning to see how we all must embrace technology. If we do not, our future classrooms will not be effective.



A Whole New World and A Whole New Workload!

College and highschool have been two completely different worlds, if not two completely separate galaxies. Has anything in any class been the same, at all? There is absolutely no similarities between the two, but there is an overabundance of contrasts. As I mentioned earlier, we must all learn to embrace technology. We cannot teach as our teachers taught us!  

I graduated two short years ago, using absolutely no technology in most all of my classrooms. I was largely taught by "burp back" education. When I started college last semester, I began to see the shift that occurs in the methods of teaching at the college level. Yes, some of my basic classes continued to be burp back classes, but other classes had us taking a part in our own education. We were encouraged and sometimes required to use technology to take part in active self learning. Teachers began to embrace technology, unlike almost any one of the teachers I had in high school. Now as this semester has come around, I again find myself with two distinct types of teachers, those who embrace technology in the classroom and those who do not. 

Now that the first week of school has passed, I am having to constantly tell myself to keep calm. This semester I seem to have a workload that is never going to end, unlike my past two semesters. My first two semesters were challenging, but I could handle the workload with ease and still have time left over to go back home quite often and have fun; however, this past week has literally been nothing but schoolwork. Balancing EDM310 with all of my other classes will definitely be the hardest part of this class, but I definitely see that I must find a balance.


Time Is Running Away, Better Go Catch It

I am waving GOODBYE to procrastination. Wait, I'm waving goodbye to what? I don't even know what that word means anymore. My brain is no longer associated with that word. Well, at least that's what I'm going to keep telling myself. There is no way I can find balance if I put my work off. I've tried this, and I promise it does not work. Well, at least for me it surely doesn't.

In order to combat the work of this class and of my others, I am doing my best to get ahead of the game. Who needs a life outside of school, right? No, I know this is not true either. I have set a goal for myself, and I am determined to accomplish that goal. I am going to bury my face into all of my books for these next few weeks, get ahead, and not have to have any cram sessions for the whole semester. The clock is going to be my friend, and if it doesn't want to be, well too bad. I am going to make it my friend.



Questions, Comments, Concerns, Queries 

Currently, I can't think of any more questions about this class, and I'm trying to let go of my fears and concerns. Hopefully I will have plenty of comments as the weeks progress. Honestly, I am just happy to know that if anything does come up or if I ever need help, this class provides a great set of people that will be able to help me if I can't figure it out by myself or with the help of Google!