WordPress, My Technological Ignorance & Teaching

As usual I'm reading and following Seah, and he is talking about "WordPress" so I went right to them and started a blog called "Lynn O'Connor's Process Notes: Second Edition." I have no idea if I'll switch or not, but their format feels very cool. I wrote them a note saying I needed some instruction and maybe they could get in touch with me. They are located here in San Francisco, I could have their whole team over for dinner, which I offered. I am so behind and backwards. I never read computer manuals, and I certainly didn't read anything that Blogger puts out, nor the few books I picked up about Blogger and how to use it. Following the culture while wagging a tail far being is almost becoming a quasi obsession. Its time for some self-analysis.

Coming attraction: A huge and somewhat frightened class lies right ahead of me
I have a class of 60 first year doctoral students at our program starting up in the third week of April, so I might have to put my new interest on hold, but I doubt that I'll do that. I care about the class and plan to be very over prepared this year to see if it goes better than it has in some years past. Its a very large (for our program and our style of classes) and its difficult for students to settle into in and not feel overwhelmed. We have for the most part clinically focused students and this course is all about psychological science which is where I put my brain most of the time. So its not only overwhelming, but it actually frightens some students though it shouldn't because they aren't expected to understand anything they don't understand. I shift between thinking I should perhaps make it more demanding --not more confusing, just more of a challenge, and perhaps I should design it to have fewer demands, though I can't image how.

Class design as it stands
As it stands, I have a series of professors of various areas of psychological science come and introduce the students to their areas of expertise (in cognition, emotion, or personality), talk about their own research, and consider possible clinical implications of their work. The students just have to read articles assigned before each lecture, write thoughtful questions about the readings each week, and write a 12 page final paper. No exams, no quizzes, though I am rethinking that one. Despite this basic simplicity in course design, there often is an air of "confusion" around the course that I can't figure out, and that I'm hoping some big time over-preparation on my part might somehow rub off on them and extinguish even a hint of confusion. I thought about starting a blog for the course, but too many of our students absolutely freak out at anything having to do with technology. They signed up for clinical psychology because they are shy of technological innovations, or so it seems.

Behind in technological innovations
The school is way behind in technology and I think --though I don't know-- I'm probably the only faculty member deep into chasing after the Internet and in love with what I guess is called "web 2." I try to explain the visual and tactile experience of writing on Ajax, how things just visually slide into place, and people look at me blankly. I don't know enough to make myself clear, or to make the technological innovations I'm speaking of clear, I just know what is aesthetically pleasing so me, and the Ajax thing for sure is. So of course I would like to bring that into this class, but since students already seem confused, and I'm confused about what it is I'm trying to describe, I guess that has to wait for another year.

I need hands on instruction
I hope I hear back from someone from WordPress and get some clarification about the whole web world and how to use it. I'm not about to read a how to do it text book, I need some hands on instruction. It puts me into the position my students must find themselves in, when put right into the center of some of the most active psychological scientists in the country. I heard from a friend that it is not possible to respond to my blog right now, and I have no idea of what to do about it, other than go out to Apple and beg my own Apple Genius, John, to help if he can. He is very brilliant in my estimation, so its right to call him an Apple Genius, and I'm sure if he has the time, he could figure out the problem and teach me much more than I know, helping me gain some mastery over the technology I'm using in absolute sheer ignorance. I apologize to anyone who wants to write comments here, for the glitch in my very simple set up. People could write comments a few weeks ago, so I have no idea why they can't now. But my heart felt apology for the error in set up here, and I am going to try to correct is as soon as I can.

Being in the position of learner helps me to take a more sympathetic stance
Writing this has made me feel greater sympathy for my students, as the teacher here is in the position of learner, and confusion is the name of the game. I think confusion always comes first when learning anything new, so I hope I'm not expecting too much in the way of calm and organized clarity from students in terms of their moods and their efforts to get into my science-based upcoming class. I sure would like to start a blog for "Cognition, Emotion and Personality, 2007" that the more technically sophisticated students could enjoy and contribute to, you know a "psychological science page" on the web, for clinical graduate students.