Questions

Q: During the CultureQuest project experience how did it help enhance:

1. The study of culture?
A: I am fairly new to using computer technology, so most of my studying inthe past has been the 'old fashioned' way.....libraries and textbooks. Doing this CultureQuest project has enhanced my skills on using the internet for research. There is so much more available to the student in their studies when the world-wide web is at their fingertips. I have really learned how to make use of the information that is out there.

2.Project-based learning?
A: I have done most of my past studies as a single, alone student, and have not done much work in a group doing projects. This has been a very useful activity for me, both for working with others in a group and for having the goal of a fixed project. It is really a simulation of a real-life work situation, because in most fields of business and work, employees are put in situations where they have to perform group projects. None of my other graduate classes here at school gave us the opportunity to work in groups.

3. Integration of technology?
A: I have learned much in the area of technology, again because I have used very little computer in the past and most of it was self-taught, not knowing even some of the basics. It has been very exciting to gain more knowledge of what the computer can do and to do this hands-on approach. It has really forced me to learn quickly and see that it isn't as hard as I thought. I learned techniques in doing this CultureQuest that I would not have if we just wrote papers and did more traditional projects.

Sad Week

This has been a difficult week with the passing of my fiance's father. I had to miss my one and only class because of the wake. I am quite drained from it all.

I was able to re-save my digital story on a compatible file that should open up in class. I borrowed a microphone from the professor and did my narration recording at home. It came out pretty well, after several attempts. The tricky part was trying not to clip off the sound when changing the picture frames. I was hoping to keep the voice part going while I changed the pictures, but it doesn't allow you to do that. I tried many times to upload it to the digital dropbox, but it would not go. Very frustrating. Maybe it is too big?
I was not able to show the presentation in class, but will do it next week for our final class.

Final Weeks

In Today's class I was able to put the finishing touches on our culturequest cover page, with some help from the group members who were all there. We are quite pleased with the results. I am not able to open my digital story power point because I saved it in Microsoft Word 2007 and it will not work with the school computers. Professor Gersh loaned me a microphone to finish the recording at home. But I am thinking that I will try putting it in a document and saving it so it will be compatible. (when I have some time this weekend)
I sent in my webquest yesterday and just have some more field work to finish and that takes care of all my assignments for the semester.

blog, blog, blog

Last week the members of our culture quest group met for an hour or so before class to work on our front page. we were able to get some of it done, but still had some questions and problems. Professor Gersh was able to help us with a couple of things when we were in class, but I was feeling a little frustration when I left because I was unable to get a chance to talk to her; everytime I got her attention, she quickly turned away and started talking to someone else.

Also, my digital story power point is saved in a file from Microsoft 2007 and it would not open up at the school computer because they have an older version. I'm a little concerned that I may not be able to present my project if the file won't open up on those computers and I worked very hard on it.
We have no class again this week, but I will try to finish up most of my projects. I still have some field work to do.

I am so thrilled because I got a 100% on the statistics test I took Monday!

spring!

The sun came out today while I was walking from the parking lot to class, after a week of rain, and it felt HOT! Spring is finally here.
We did some cultural exercises that were pretty interesting in class today. With a sticker of a country (unknown to us) on our foreheads, we had to have conversations with classmates and guess our countries from their remarks. At first it seemed silly and rediculous, but by the end, we all seemed to see the value in the exercise from the perspective of cultural understanding.
The second one involved us writing down desciptions of our own heritage, then classmates read them and tried to guess the country we were describing. Again, a little awkward in the process, but ended up being kind of fun and intersting. Another valuable tool and idea to use for student's cultural awareness. I was thinking that I could possibly use a smaller version of this one, narrow it down to focus on the music from different countries/backgrounds as a way to study world music.

class

In class last night we worked on visual and media literacy. It was interesting to hear the different poems each person came up with to describe the picture we saw. And also to see the pictures we drew from the poems.

Our Culture Quest group is progressing nicely and we commented and helped each other with our pages. We are planning to meet early next week to continue our group work.

spring break

We have missed two classes in a row, but I have tried to get some of my projects worked on. It has been a very restful spring break for me, I was still recovering from my illness.
I managed to spend a day at the Museum of Natural History, I haven't been there in many, many years, not since they put the new wing on. I went with my sister and 8 year old niece and daughter, so it was a fun trip.
I am almost done making my power point for the digital story. I had so much fun going through old photos and scanning them and putting the story together. I also used some pics from the internet and I feel like an expert now working with images.
I can't believe we only have about 6 more classes left!