Fun Stuff!

So I was kinda bored this morning and I was thinking about how nobody writes letters anymore. That's kinda sad. So later I'm bummin around online and I find this website.
http://www.postcrossing.com/
Here's the deal. You register on the website and then it gives you an address to send a postcard to. Once you send your postcard, you get one...and it can be from anywhere in the world. How cool is that. You all should check it out...
-Russ

thoughts on social learning in an online environment...

So, here I am, thinking about school and reading the required articles. There's one point in article one that I'm really focusing on as an educator, and also as an Instructional Support Tech at the university. That's the social aspect to online learning. For years I've been watching certain websites i.e. digg.com and reddit.com... These websites allow the "masses" to determine the direction of news on the web. Digg is descibed by Wikipedia as " ...a social news website made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet...".
In a way, online courses allow the same type of back and forth flow between students (and instructors) in the class. One of the greatest things about the internet is the free flowing exchange of thoughts and ideas. It's really exciting for me to watch our class discussion boards as new thoughts are introduced and discussed. I'm really hoping that the people in the class will be enthusiastic about this exchange of ideas, as it will make the class so much more interesting.
In other new, faithful readers (Luke and Ginny) I got to go to Baldwin county Alabama over the weekend. I highly suggest that you all go and visit there at least once. It is beautiful! I really enjoyed myself as did Will and Sarah. I think they liked playing on the beach more than anything. Of course, there was also a spectacular sunset which I captured on the iphone. :)

Inside Russ's head!!

Hello....I am Luke. I am posting from inside Russel's head. I am the voice from his childhood when we used to run around the woods and play "army guys" and stuff. Well...now, we are grown...and life has become a strange thing that happens to us as we try to survive yet another day. Seperated as we are...we are still the best of friends and no distance nor any amount of time can change that.

Thanks for including me in this, Russ...you are really the best of the best!!!

Later...

LONG LIVE PUS AND PUKE!!!!

Back to school!

Well, after a 3+ year hiatus, I'm back. This time I've got a reason to write. I'm now in Grad School at AUM. I'm taking a really fun class that's all about online learning. I'm thinking it's going to be fairly easy, as I work in the same computer field.
To be perfectly honest, I'm a bit nervous. Maybe I should act like Rodney Dangerfield did in "Back to School". I'm sure that Dr. Shumack would surely appreciate that. Anyway, I'll be posting a good bit on the ol' blog over the next few months, so faithful readers, check back regularly!
-Russ