Wednesday, September 01, 2004

My first wireless post. Take a picture for the photo album! I feel very technologically advanced now.

Still trying to get used to this keyboard, though, as it's only recently that I learned to touch-type in the first place.

I begin teaching tomorrow. I came in to the school library today to try out their new wireless capability and to upload my syllabus into the web component of the class (WebCT). Unfortunately, the first email I opened was a message from tech support at the library stating that they took WebCT down about half an hour before I got here because it's all messed up, and they are sorry for the delay. They're sorry! Huh. Guess I have to make up my syllabus the old-fashioned way: on a word processor.

Checked at the bookstore to make sure they ordered the books for my class, and they did. It was gratifying to see that the shelf tag referred to me as professor, although technically I think I would be considered a lecturer.

I have decided that I will hold my office hours here at the library cafe. My actual office is a tiny cinder-block windowless dungeon (though on the fifth floor), I share it with other grad students, and the antique computer has neither printer nor internet access. Also, some of the teaching materials I read suggested having a "coffee hour" instead of office hours, because students find one more approachable if the contact format sounds less formal.

4 comments:

liz said...

Huh--wonder if some sites don't like this Firefox thingy. Connection refused by Mark's site *and* some librarian site and some other site I've already forgotten.

argotnaut said...

Refused connections usually mean their server is too busy, or there's some kinda bottleneck between you and them. Nothing personal. Sometimes just reloading the page a time or two will make it work.

I really liked the light action on that keyboard, but I dunno -- maybe "good" keyboards are supposed to be stiffer.

Glad you're enjoying it! :)

Mark said...

No no... that's just me trying to move my webserver onto a different machine and having the normal set of problems (it's nothing personal against Firefox *grin*)

It sounds like you're going to have a good time lecturing. I hope you enjoy it.

I wish I could set up office in the coffee shop, it sounds like a damn good idea. It would save me strolling down to the kitchen every 30 min.

Somehow I don't think my manager would go for it though.

PS. Will you be changing your site title to "ProfessorLizardo" now? *grin*

liz said...

Oh, it's not the key action, but how I have to position my hands that's taking some getting used to. It's actually probably better that I didn't get too fluent yet the other way.

I can't tell yet if the screwiness of trying to get on various sites (like Nextel and a couple different credit card sites) is due to Firefox or some fluke of using EMU's wireless.

I guess the computer lab is just in the other room, but then I would have to pack everything up and wheel it into there and re-unpack it all...sigh

I think I will be obliged to pretend I'm German and become "Frau Doktor Professor" Lizardo!