Back Door Slam

A friend of mine has introduced me to this band and I wanted to share. I'm impressed.

silliness from cheezburger

Some days, you just have to laugh. I received these via email yesterday and shared with those who sit near me at work. I listened to the giggles make their way around the "cube farm." :-)

Milestone

On June 13, 2006, I applied for grad school. Sometime in July, I received an acceptance letter and the semester started in August.

It's been 6 semesters, 2 years, countless hours in front of my laptop, 2 different laptops, backups of files and burned CDs with files and podcasts and websites and reflections and missed weekends and just a lot of work and support.

Friday was a major milesone in my progress as I passed my portfolio, which takes the place of a comprehensive exam. This portfolio showcases some of the skills I've learned and shows a bit of my personality.

Many of you have been incredible supporters, so I wanted to share this milestone with you.

http://ouray.cudenver.edu/~mjfinch/portfolio/index.html

eLearning Development Conference 2008

Lucky me! At sort of the last minute, I was offered a chance to attend this conference in Salt Lake City over a few days this week. I am currently sitting in a session where we're talking about "Why Wikis Wrule," which is about the widespread use of wikis, as well as some practical tips about different wiki options out there, as well as ideas on how and why to use wikis.

I wanted to share a few tips that I've picked up; partly for the sake of my own memory and partly for the good of sharing with those who are interested.

I've used PBWiki a little bit for school projects; it has worked well in several situations - writing a paper, keeping track of team assignments, and "just playing" around. Debra and Betsy in my cohort at CUDenver have both had success in their wikis, from what I can tell (I will add a link to their wikis later when I have time to look them up).

Our presenter just talked about Tiddlywiki, which looks very interesting and exciting. He uses PMWiki, but acknowledges that it takes a bit more programming knowledge if something needs to be customized.

I'll also post a link to our presenter's wiki once he makes it public - it hasn't made it public yet because he has a few sessions left to present and doesn't want it changed before he has a chance to present the things he needs to address. :-)

A reminder

I was complaining earlier today. I have 32 days left before I finish my MA and I'm encountering some challenges. While I attempt to overcome those challenges, I began complaining. A friend sent me this video and I realized again that complaining doesn't do anyone any good.