Something I’ve picked up from my mom is the mantra “If other people can figure out how to do this, so can I”. From the outside, we may seem different. She buys drills, tears down walls, and builds closets and banisters. I buy software, tear down curricula, and build interactive learning activities. If you ask my mom why she tears down walls and fiddles with a design until it works, she’ll tell you it’s because she enjoys building things that people can use. Although our tools are different, our goals and motivations are the same. I, too, enjoy building things that people can use – I get that from my mom. She’d tell you we’re not alike, but we really are. (Yes we are, mom!)
Back in the early 1980’s, I was obsessed with programming on my Commodore 64. My interest continued through college, where I encountered the Mac HyperCard and PC DOS worlds. In the 90’s I left home for the military, got married, had kids, went to grad school… and by the time I had time to think about programming again – the tools of that trade had exploded beyond what I could quickly assimilate. So, I focused instead on the tech I needed for my career. I mastered Excel data analysis and Power Point motion tracks. As a teacher, I became the queen of animated Power Points (yes, I was that 90’s stereotype). In 1999, I was approached about teaching within the emerging online platform, WebCT. I jumped at the chance! Two of my favorite things – tech and teaching – combined into one? Yes!!
In the 2000’s, I dove into screen casting – recording lectures for my online students with my trusty Bamboo graphic tablet and whiteboard program. It was cutting edge to be able to deliver video lectures at the time. But, in the tech world, new quickly becomes passé. Recently, I have wanted to gain experience with interactive animation to update my content delivery. I have my own website and I’ve done some rudimentary interactive programming there, but I wanted something more robust.
This past week I published my first inter
active Articulate Storyline quiz activity. The program has a bit of a learning curve, but there are videos to help. It’s enough like Power Point that it was fairly easy going. Until… I couldn’t get the output to upload to my website. And… there were way too many files to upload individually and keep in order. And… my web hosting service wouldn’t unzip folders. So, I got frustrated and walked away for a few days.
Then, as I looked through pictures of my mom knocking out walls and building a closet from scratch, I realized that just like her – if other people can figure this out, so can I.
So, I started researching ways to bypass the program file transfer protocol (ftp) that wasn’t working. I came across FileZilla, and memories of an ill-fated attempt to set up a Moodle server about 10 years ago came back to me. I downloaded the software, pulled up some help files, logged into my web host server, transferred the files, got very nervous, and… IT WORKED!!! I started yelling my version of “Eureka!” through the house, got called a nerd by my son (who was playing video games at the time – the son of a nerd), and posted my joy on Facebook 😉
As they used to say on a famous 80’s TV show… “I love it when a plan comes together!”.
My first project: http://www.mycozynook.com/215math1.html More to come soon – I’m addicted now!
Murphy's Blog 