Looking back over the week, I can say that this week was one of the most difficult since I’ve been here. What was difficult was working through the transition of courses from WC to IST. Before coming to WC, I was a teacher for 15 years. For the first 13 years, I was at the Jr. High/Middle School. Although I worked with different people and in different groups, I got used to sameness. Working on IST courses, I’ve gotten used to working with John Buckwalter (IPS), Amy Stever (Associate Director of E-Learning for IST), and the faculty. I can’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia and unrealized dreams of what could have been with the program. I tend to find myself planning for a longer range of time. Also, I’ve been fighting feelings of inadequacy. Was the decision to transition my fault? What did I do? What could I have done? I have been reassured from many angles that this transition is about dollars and cents. There were several projects and ideas that I hoped to work on, but this is a great reminder to me I need to live more in the moment because I never know what the future may hold here. Although I’m still a bit uneasy about everything, I’ve worked through my personal demons and ready to move on.

PUBPL 483 Game/Sim Project
Last Friday, Betsy Hutton and I met with Ronie Linser from Fablusi. My feeling is that for our instructional purposes this software would work, but based on what I can see and others like Kent Matsueda and Penny Ralston-Berg, we could use ANGEL for much of what he would do with his software. There is also the extra piece that we would be relying on his server. The helpdesk would have to be brought into the conversation. Lastly, I interested in being able to work with Fablusi to modify the interface to include more graphics — and how might that happen?  This would be a more detailed exploration of how the software is actually built. . If we can build something similar here and make it more dynamic.Today at 1:30, we will be meeting with Roni to follow up on a few items. I’m so glad to see this process continue to move forward.

Blackboard Collaborate
I’m participating with a few members from my office on testing the new product from Blackboard which combines Elluminate Live and Wimba. Here’s more info if you’re interested: http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Collaborate/Overview.aspx