Moving on to Illustrator

Changing over from Photoshop to Illustrator in my computer graphics class midway through the semester was a bit of an adjustment for me. I had just come off the cookbook exercises and the poster ad project, both of which had been very immersive experiences with Photoshop. The abruptness of the switch coupled with the fact that my online technical writing course started October 19 and ran through December 19 kind of cramped my style or at least stalled my momentum in my graphics class. When I started Illustrator, I guess I felt like a fish out of water. I was lost for a while even though I was not unfamiliar with vector graphics. In fact I had used vector graphics tools before I had used raster graphic tools in my computer career. In the late 80's through the 90's I used MacDraw and Word and Excel Drawing tools to do charts and system documentation. I knew about grouping and rotating and drawing shapes. Only when digital cameras came along and I started "developing" my photos in Photoshop (and more recently in Lightroom) - did I develop basic familiarity with bitmap graphics tools - and then only to develop photos.

So, even though I'd used (sometimes intensely) basic vector graphic tools first, I found Illustrator to be challenging. Of course it helped that some of the commands from Photoshop carried over to Illustrator. Two of our projects in Illustrator were to design a super-hero logo and a cd jacket for a band of our choice. I chose Sailor Moon as my super hero and combined two images to make it look like she was sitting on a moon (sort of like Betty Boop actually).

For my band, I chose Monkey Puzzle, a postmodern "rockapella" type group out of Bloomington, Indiana. I had heard them perform as the lead-in group for another singer at Lafayette's Long Center in the 90's. I don't know if they are still actively performing, but at the time I was so impressed, I bought both their CD's on the spot.

The CD cover project in particular was an excellent project to challenge me and help me to focus. I had to do a lot of research to find images and inspirations that fell within my ability to actually do something with them in Illustrator. Unfortunately, the approach suggested by our instructor - that of coming up with two drawings at the start - just didn't work for me. That was too top down - at least for this assignment. Instead I needed to search for bits and pieces, and try different things with them, and in the end was fortunate to put something together that worked. My instructor offered lots of helpful guidance to get my muse going. I also pulled the group's CDs out of my library and listened to all their music. I think that helped.

In the end, here's what I came up with:




I have to give credit to 6 wonderful resources I found on the web which served as my inspirations:

• the Biffy Cyro Puzzle Album Cover
• the wonderful family tree drawing (for which alas I can no longer locate the website)
• the yellow sky image
• the labyrinth graphic
• the gemfonts failed font
• the hanoded photography fancy rainforest font

Also, apologies to Monkey Puzzle for changing the name of their CD to one of my favorite songs on it.

Reflecting back on the semester, I am still struck by the strong psychomotor component involved in learning how to use Photoshop and Illustrator. Never has that been so apparent in my other computer classes - but then again, while art and programming both involve design, the root of art lies in actually being able to take a pen, pencil, brush, or some artistic tool and render something amazing. So why should that be any different just because the process now takes place on a computer?

JuneBug

Photoshop Ads and Posters

My previous posts have sported a series of assignments in Photoshop effects from the Photoshop Cookbook for my computer graphics class this fall. I had lots of fun with those. The next assignment in that class was to design a poster ad on a product or service. I chose to feature our mules Kate and Annie, who have appeared on these blog pages before. Benny hitches Kate and Annie up almost every day during the spring, summer, and fall and takes them for a ride up and down our county roads. Sometimes instead of hitching them to the wagon, he and Bonnie saddle up and ride them. So now that the neighbors have seen them do their thing, Benny gets invited frequently to give hayrides for local outdoor events. Hence, this series of posters (click on each image to get a larger view, if desired):

Woodcuts, oils, and water colors

Continuing on from my previous post about my computer graphics class this fall, following are some Photoshop Cookbook effects that make photos look like oil paintings, water colors, and woodcuts. You can click the thumbnails to get the full-size image - in many cases doing that will help you distinguish the effect from the original photo more clearly. In some cases I tried different effects with the same photo.

Water Color Effect	Original
	Original
	Original

Following are oil effects:

Oil Effect	Original
	Original
	Original

The following effect converts a photo to a woodcut (remember doing those in art class?)

Woodcut Effect	Original

In many cases these effects aren't necessarily an improvement on the original photo, but they were fun (and sometimes frustrating) to do!

JuneBug

More Photoshop Effects

Continuing from my previous post on my computer graphics class this fall semester, here are some more fun Photoshop effects from the Photoshop Cookbook. This first one is called Summer to Fall (click on images to view larger version, if desired):

Effect	Original

The following photos demonstrate a vintage hollywood glamour effect:

Effect	Original

Stay tuned for more Cookbook effects!

JuneBug

Back to Beginnings

When I first started this blog in 2006, it was with the intent of chronicling my job search, after losing my job of 21 years. I hoped to connect with others in similar circumstances to perhaps find and share encouragement along the way. I also thought it would be fun to share my interests as a hobbyist photographer. Well, as time passed, I found a job, and branched out in other directions. I wrote about my family and the Cafe Rienzi, my great aunt Firma Phillips who was a local scenery artist, and several other other noteworthy personalities and topics. Then last year I lost my job again. So this spring I went back to college through Ivy Tech's Senior Scholar Program which allows people over 60 to take classes for free. Recently I have been blogging about that experience as it ties in with my interest in instructional design.

With this post I'd like to get back to the blog's original intent, my interest in photography. This past semester I had a wonderful opportunity to take a computer graphics class at Ivy Tech. The first half of the semester we worked in Photoshop and the second half we spent on Illustrator. Having played around with Photoshop version 7 for many years, I enjoyed this formal class immensely and thought it would be fun to share some of the products in the next few posts.

Our first series of projects were from the Photoshop Cookbook. I especially enjoyed the out of frame effect as shown in the following series of photos:

Effect	Original

Effect	Original

Effect	Original

More effects to come! Stay tuned ....

JuneBug

Reflections of a Senior Learner - IT Job Outlook

This past semester I had a wonderful opportunity to take an online course in technical writing through our local community college where seniors can attend for free after they turn 60. The course was an 8 week course - offered through the English department for full credit. It started October 19 and ended December 19, and so was extremely fast-paced. Our final project was to research and write a formal technical report on the job outlook in our field to other career consultants in our imaginary firm. The fields varied among the students taking the class. Some were majoring in business administration, others in the medical field, and so forth. I am a dual career person with training and experience in both the fields of information technology and instructional design (education), so I chose to write about the job outlook in information technology.


I have to say that this was an excellent assignment - I really learned a lot about online resources for this topic, if nothing else - such as the Bureau of Labor Statistic's Occupational Handbook and its accompanying O*Net website. It was also interesting and kind of fun to get to "triangulate" my own perspective on the information technology field with all its transformations and permutations over the past thirty years.


I invite you to peruse my report: Occupational Outlook for the Information Technology Field: An Informational Report for Career Consultants. It defines the field and lists various occupations under its umbrella as well as common duties, functions, and activities. It briefly discusses educational requirements for various occupations in the field as well as occupational outlook, placement opportunities, and personality fit. It also includes some crystal-ball type predictions on new opportunities coming down the pike. Finally the references and appendix at the end offer some nice resources to researchers and job-seekers alike. 


JuneBug

Reflections of an senior learner - A Blackboard Organizer

For the last 6 months I have been a senior learner - at age 60 I went back to college while unemployed to catch up on changes in my field and to get certified. Since then I have thrilled on these pages about the joys of learning and groaned and moaned about the challenges. But now the semester is through, we are almost past the holidays, and I am taking the opportunity to put my money where my mouth is. One of our projects in my online Technical Writing Course was to write a set of instructions to accompany a new product of our own invention for the company of our choice. Borrowing from lessons learned in simplifying whilst designing the Report Tickler System at Bauer Family Resources (where I served as Grants and Compliance Specialist), I imagined an enhancement to the Blackboard product used in distance learning by many institutions. Essentially my enhancement was an interactive student organizer that would take the place of all the different course syllabuses. It would help students and teachers keep track of courses, assignments, projects, and exams all in one place. In short, it attempts to address one of those pesky and persistent human problems that I imagined technology was meant to solve.

So without further ado, here are links to my imaginary Blackboard Organizer (and prerequisite cover letter):

Blackboard Student Organizer Instructions
Memo to Ray Henderson, Blackboard Inc.

JuneBug

Thomas Durant

I promised more to come in the way of my eulogy, when I wrote of my Uncle Tom's passing a few months ago. Uncle Tom was one of the co-founders of the Cafe Rienzi, and an artist in his own right - only one of his many accomplishments. He originally hailed from the suburbs of Chicago, and as a young man, roamed a sales territory in Indiana for his father's business. Uncle Tom knew just about everything and could do just about anything. He and my Aunt met in the labor movement in Detroit after he served in World War II. He followed Aunt Joan back to New York, her roots, and they lived on the outskirts of Greenwich Village for over 60 years until he died. I remember him taking me to his studio in the fifties and teaching me about abstract art. I was maybe eight or ten years old. He let me paint a picture. It remained with me for a while, I even took it to classroom show and tell as my parents moved around the hemispheres in pursuit of my Dad's geology career. It eventually disappeared into my distant childhood.

Uncle Tom and Aunt Joan were fabulous cooks. They tended to fight for control of the kitchen. Uncle Tom cooked me many a wonderful meal ... I still remember steamed mussels, seasoned with a sauce, probably consisting of garlic, olive oil, fresh parmesan cheese, and I don't know what all else, when I brought my girlfriend to New York back in the early 70's.

Yesterday I was visiting with my Aunt Joan on the phone to find out her and my cousin Anna's Christmas plans this year - their first Christmas without him. Aunt Joan gave me quite a few tidbits about Uncle Tom (and the Cafe Rienzi) that were new to me. So here they are:

The Cafe Rienzi was located in what was an old macaroni factory, with a grocery store in front. Uncle Tom, with his architectural affinities, designed the Cafe out of the existing facility - and all the founders worked to turn it into a reality. Aunt Joan has been a prolific writer in her life (not just poetry). I look forward to the day when more of her work is published, because I believe it is a great gift to future generations. Anyway, for a period she wrote plays for Off-Off Broadway, and Uncle Tom built all her sets. Many of Aunt Joan's plays were performed in Theater for the New City currently located at 155 First Avenue, New York 10003-2906.

image courtesy of bike snob nyc blog

This current location was originally an indoor market with vegetable stands and such. Again Uncle Tom provided the architectural drawings and plans to convert this area into a theater. Aunt Joan says the artistic director Crystal Field still provides her with complimentary theater tickets as a thank you.

Uncle Tom also played a key role in assisting a long time (albeit younger) friend of the family artist David Maurice of Star Metal in setting up his metal works business. Star Metal does decorative and architectural metal work for downtown New York buildings among others. 

Well, I will close for now, but I am pleased to add these new details to the online record. One of the fond images I have of Uncle Tom - in addition to all the wonderful family discussions over the dinner table, and growing up with his inspirational paintings decorating my Aunt and Uncle's New York apartment is as master gardener. Uncle Tom brought his midwestern roots to New York. He put out garden every spring. For years he had a wonderful roof garden in Manhattan, complete with a fig tree, which we all enjoyed. He even grew sweet corn up there. And wonderful little strawberries and all kinds of vegetables. Even after the roof became unavailable for gardening, he continued to grow tomato plants on their tiny metal window seat balcony off the back bedroom.

I hope some of the folks who have purchased Uncle Tom's paintings will eventually find these writings and perhaps provide photos of his work. 

JuneBug

Reflections of an Adult Learner - Learning from Final Presentations

In my Visual Basic Class we had our choice of a gradebook as a final project - either as a database exercise or as a sequential file exercise, but using advanced controls. We had the options of adding enhancements for extra credit. So I tried to do a blended "animal" between the two assignments, something that would give me experience with the best of both. And it was a good exercise. I came up with a fairly decent design and working program. But oh how I learned from my classmates the day we did our final project presentations.

I often get compliments from my instructors. Some have even commented that they wish all students put forth the effort they see me putting forth. But when I hear this, I think, "Well it kinda all depends on where each student is in life ..."

A senior learner vs a young learner - since I went to college at both stages of life (and points in between) I can make the comparison firsthand.

Recently I was chatting in the cafeteria with my friend who had told me about the community college's Senior Scholar Program. She was recounting with relish the unknown role of women in the French Revolution, the topic of a research paper for her history class. She and I often share our journey ... What's different about this stage of life, we decided, is that we are able to be more focussed (oddly) about our education. That's because we have fewer distractions (again oddly). When you go away to college out of high school, your whole life tends to be about education and being a student. But the difference is that so much of life is unknown at that age, whereas at 60 so much of life has been lived. We know who we are, we know who we've been, we know, more or less, what we want, we have ideas about how to get there, and we have a lifetime perspective. We also have our challenges - like being unemployed and bumping up against the specter of age discrimination in our job hunt. We have aging health issues - like arthritis and bifocals. We tend to want to integrate new learning into our life experiences - which slows the learning process for us. The shelves of our memory tend to get a bit overcrowded, and sometimes things fall off. But we aren't trying to go to school, work full time, and raise a family (usually). That enables us to look at the educational process with a whole new eye and to see things about it we never saw when we were younger - things such as learning is a joy and a privilege, however traditional learning processes and institutions aren't necessarily laid out to optimize that aspect ... even though they still get the job done.

But I digress - back to the vb class final project presentations. I chose the database project out of curiosity and practicality. And I more or less stuck with the design suggested by the textbook exercises - which was pretty much having everything on one form but greatly simplifying the design for the user (uncluttering it). As a result of making that choice, I ran into many more challenges than if I had given each function or option its own screen. This was a fact I didn't realize until the final presentations. My solution was probably okay as an academic exercise. But as a viable solution that gives the best product to the user and requires less bending over backwards to make it work (which would make an employer happy), it comes in second to that of my very original thinking classmate. She came up with a nicely designed and friendly vertical screen. It had a greeting and a neat column of five buttons. Each popped up a screen for that function. So simple for the user. And less complicated for the programmer, although I'm sure that design also presented challenges.

Then my other classmate, a c++ programmer, showed me something I always wanted to be possible since the inception of databases as I knew them - back in the dBASE days.

He went through it pretty fast, so I'm going to write what I think I saw. He popped up a screen in VB 2010 that had two datagrids - a parent table and a child table. I believe if he added a student to the child table, the application created a record in the parent table - to maintain referential integrity. This worked both from Visual Basic and in Access 2010 itself. All without programming the first line of code, for the most part. Simply by setting the relationship and letting it do the work for you...

All in all our day of final presentations was a real eye-opener!

JuneBug

JuneBug's Final Project Presentation

Eating My Words - Reflections of an Adult Learner

Okay, the grumpy old fa - er, I mean, learner, has to eat her words - kudos to the Technical Writing Class's section on preparing job materials! It is the best and most comprehensive I've encountered so far. The text, the thoughtful discussion questions, along with the supplemental videos did an excellent job of preparing me for my interview on Friday!

JuneBug

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zIQruPEDmg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opYjNr_4A5k

Reflections of a Grumpy Old Far - er, I mean Learner

One thing I remember about my elders, as I was growing up, is that they had both good days and bad. Some days they woke up feeling chipper as a robin in spring. Other days they felt slow. They complained of being bothered by arthritis and various aches and pains. Well, now, I'm 60 myself, and I can appreciate the truth of certain of those stereotypes. For instance, maybe I am getting Grumpy, but like Andy Rooney of 60 minutes, certain things really irritate the hell out of me. So be forewarned. This post is not only grumpy, it's downright grouchy. Furthermore, it comes out in fragments, incomplete sentences, and and probably breaks every convention of English (or, in certain cases, programming)  that we are not supposed to violate.

I'm taking a graphics class - we are supposed to go out on the web and find tutorials. We're supposed to avoid youtube.

Grumble #1: Teacher, get over it - everybody is going to eventually use that venue, professionals and amateurs alike, just like Wikipedia, Facebook, texting on their cell phones, and whatever else new comes down the pike.

Granted students need to distinguish between professional tutorials and amateurish ones, especially those that may not teach the best approaches. But it strikes me that at this particular stage of our learning, the ability to differentiate online tutorials is not our primary job. We're just trying to learn Photoshop and Illustrator.

Other Lessons learned . . . Reflections of an Adult Learner

Yesterday, I lost my kitty Smokey. A blue-gray cat, with one eye just slightly larger than the other, he was just a starving little kitten when he appeared in our barn and garage last winter. I caught him and brought him into the house to tame him and feed him kitten formula so that he would be healthy and survive, and later took him to the vet for shots. It was still dark when I pulled out of our driveway in the early morning fog and saw something obviously not alive lying in the busy road and realized it was him. I was sad. On my way to take a scheduled all morning Work Keys exam at our local Work One Office, I couldn't stop. So I got out my cell to call Benny who was still sleeping, to let him know and to get Smokey off the road. When I got home much later that day, I covered him with pine needles, leaves, and all the flowers and herbs I could pick from my fall garden. Smokey was a pure ray of sunshine and a source of unmitigated love and devotion in this old world. He grew to be a healthy, happy kitty who enjoyed his home and left his people with fond memories of many sweet and funny encounters in his short tenure on earth. I don't think I've cried for ten years, but losing that little guy was truly something to cry for.

Yesterday was a day for paying attention. I took the entire Work Keys exam - again, because it had been five years since I took the last one. Several others just took sections. The proctor graded their sections during the break. One young lady was exhilarated when she learned she'd passed the Locating Information Section - the last requirement she had to fulfill. We all congratulated her, and she wished us all well as we went in to take the last portion of the exam and she got into her car to leave.

After the exam, I went to the McDonald's by Walmart on 26. A delivery guy from Jimmy John's had passed out free sandwiches to everyone at Work One during one of the breaks, so I just got a drink and salad to go along with it. Oh, yes, and cookies. What can I say - taking exams makes me hungry. At 1p I attended a Hub session at Work One - the Hub is part of a program called the Aging Workforce designed to assist displaced older workers primarily.

Next at Ivy Tech, I made a quick restroom stop before my 3p Visual Basic class. Another young woman was on her cell phone with a local childcare agency. She sounded desperate. When she learned that funding had come through, she almost broke into tears of joy. She proclaimed her good news and threw her arms around someone else she evidently knew who happened to be in the restroom. Of course we congratulated her too.

While we were waiting for the instructor to arrive to unlock the computer lab door, two of my classmates were talking, and one mentioned their sitter had gotten licensed and just doubled her fees. I told them about the girl in the restroom. My classmate said they had been on that waiting list for the last year and a half. Boy, I replied, wouldn't it be nice if Ivy Tech had a nursery school where students could just drop off their children, when they had no other childcare resources. My classmate said he'd had to to miss classes in the past when his childcare resource was unavailable or unreliable. He said it would be nice if they offered full time childcare and just added the charge to the rest of the student fees!

A childcare facility would be a great endowment project for some future benefactor of Ivy Tech to take on.

In class, we got down to business, which involved some group work. Another classmate, a quiet young man whom I'd been sitting next to for going on two months now, mentioned that he was tired today, kind of as an apology. We had never really talked much. Today he told me he'd gotten up early - about 4 a to go to work before class. Upon further discussion about our situations, I found out that he works 60 hours a week and goes to school. On top of that, since he is Spanish, he had to learn English and translate all his courses when he first started taking classes two years ago! I'd never really thought about that with programming languages. I said, "Gee, there ought to be a Spanish version of Visual Basic." He also has two children - he laughed when he opened his text and discovered his little girl had stuck stickers all over one of the pages of exercises for him.

This seems to be the week for getting back in touch. I'm going to attend an installation into Phi Theta Kappa for an older friend this evening, and most of my Thursday evenings have been spent at the Democrat Headquarters downtown, calling prospective voters encouraging them to turn out to vote November 2nd. Geez. Since I'm doing all that, I'd better not forget to turn out and vote myself, had I?

JuneBug

Smokey and Bon

Wouldn't it be cool .... Reflections of an Adult Learner

I'm taking classes at the undergraduate level (even tho I have a masters) in order to update some of my experience with newer technology and to earn certifications - and for fun, and to learn things I've always wanted to but never really had opportunity at work. I am an adult learner. My masters degree is in educational technology with a concentration in instructional design and my teaching philosophy is of the constructivist persuasion. (I also have an associate's degree in computer programming technology - 1991,  and a bachelor's in speech education - 1972.) Most of my work life has been spent in the technology field.

So far, I am four classes deep into my plan. I took a class in Excel 2007 this summer, and earned my MOS certification, and a Programming Logic class, as a review to get my feet wet with going back to school at age 60. This fall I am taking two courses, Visual Basic 2008 and Computer Graphics. And I was just thinking, wouldn't it be cool, if every time a student walked into a classroom, one of the walls was a visual map of where they had been so far (in the particular class) and where they were going. And if they helped build it. The map would represent our collective understanding as a class, and remind us that we were each in process of building a similar map in our individual minds. And we could have opportunities in class to discuss our journey with one another.

And wouldn't it be cool, if at least for an hour, we could be involved in a totally immersive process - however minute - so that at the end we emerged feeling like we had really accomplished something. Nobody really knows what works for busy adult learners who are probably trying to do too many things at once and most of whom just don't have the luxury of allowing themselves an immersion experience with their coursework ...

In our Visual Basic Class we are using the text An Introduction to Programming Using Visual Basic 2008 by David L. Schneider. It is scarce on text and chockful of helpful and sometimes really mind-bending little exercises. In fact you really need to do the exercises to get the full benefit of reading the chapter - because author David Sanders is all about "show, don't tell."

So I was just thinking, what if the professor assigned the class two or three progressively more complex or challenging exercises out of the book, say on loops, thusly: two groups of students working an exercise at the board (just to give a visual or reference point), the rest of the students, either in groups, or individually, working it at their computers. I like the idea of small groups because it gives students a chance to talk about it and hopefully clarify their understanding. Then at the end of class, have each student individually work an actual problem from a certification exam to see how they do? And then regroup with students to see how well that worked as a strategy and what suggestions they had.

In today's undergraduate programming courses, one is likely to encounter students who are entirely new to programming and students who are experienced programmers needing to learn a particular programming language - with variations inbetween, say the traditional structured programmer needing to learn OOP. This current situation highlights the importance of also structuring the adult learning experience to allow each student to work within their zone of proximal development. One thing I have observed is that the professor can give the whole class one exercise, but allow each individual some wiggle room within the exercise to play, to explore, and to experiment (enough to keep it manageable, anyway, for both teacher and student). In my experience, students will tend to challenge themselves anyway to varying degrees. Of course review of basic concepts benefits everybody, the new student, as well as the relatively experienced student.

And here's a belated idea for the Programming Logic course I took this summer which used Raptor and JavaScript: Wouldn't it be cool to assign as a class project to write a Google Gadget in JavaScript?

My other class this semester is a basic Computer Graphics class - and so far we've been immersed in Photoshop, but are getting ready to leave that behind and start on Illustrator. What strikes me about this class is its strong psychomotor component (Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains). I suppose all courses that teach software packages have a psychomotor component, but this is the first class I had really even thought about it. That's because learning Photoshop is more like learning to play a musical instrument, than, say, the Excel 2007 course I took this past summer. At least to me.

While I'm not a huge fan of behaviorism, it definitely has its benefits in my current situation. Even though I've used earlier versions of Photoshop (more as a hobbyist and to "develop" my digital photographs) and other graphics packages like MacDraw and MacPaint (for drawing flowcharts and other systems-related diagrams) for years and even though I have benefited from the occasional employer workshop offering*, I would still classify myself somewhere in the beginner-intermediate continuum in Photoshop. I have a strong background in the concepts of vector graphics and raster graphics, but, in the case of PhotoShop, no idea how to use many of  the tools. Unlike MacPaint, MacDraw, MSPaint, and PhotoDraw, PhotoShop has not been as easy for me to figure out. I think beginner level students in Photoshop might really benefit from opportunities to briefly observe a particular skill, like using the Pen tool, and then to try it out for themselves - and to practice it. Yes, believe it or not, I am talking about short, very specific drill and practice exercises. This would help them to better learn the tool, and to recall how to use it when asked to apply it to more complex assignments. Well, it would benefit me, anyway.  So I googled the web for practice exercises and I did find a site called Mike's Sketch Pad that had pen tool practice templates that you could practice drawing.

Just for fun and off-topic, here's a couple of exercises I've done in Photoshop for my class so far:

Out of the frame effect

Product Ad

Well, on to practice some Visual Basic.

JuneBug

*I worked at a university for 21 years and I think introductory and even more specialized workshops in Photoshop, Fireworks, and Flash should be available to the university community as a whole - as a resource for professors to offer their students, and to take themselves, as well as to university employees. The whole university could benefit from this exchange.

Back to the Future - Reflections of an Adult Learner

I recently completed two summer school courses at our local community college. I took one online course in Excel and one face-to-face class in Programming Logic at the local campus. I never dreamed I'd be going back to school at age 60 - well, not unless it was to follow in my parents' footsteps and pursue a Ph.D. But last year, I lost my job. I figured, like many other experienced and educated workers probably did, that certifications would prove the most efficient way to update my skills in the newer technologies that my programming degree did not cover or that I had not had opportunity to use in the work place. Specifically I was interested in graphics, all things web, and newer programming languages as they applied to design, which seems to be my passion. In addition to my IT background, I also have a masters degree in Educational Technology with a concentration in Instructional Design. So naturally, I can't resist reflecting on my current situation as an adult learner and have already written a couple of blog posts about my summer school experience. One of the posts includes an analysis of the online Excel course. In this post I'd like to consider the F2F Programming Logic Course.


My local community college allows people to attend for free after they turn sixty which I did this May.

On GPS's and Online Courses - Reflections of an Adult Learner

I took an online course in Excel 2007 at our local community college this summer and thoroughly enjoyed it, but now that it's over, I realize that not all the insights I gained concerned Excel. Granted there were some pretty cool Excel moments - I've been using spreadsheets since the early 80's, but I have to admit to being WOWed and amazed with this newer version of Excel. And, yes, sometimes a bit annoyed by what it still did not do.

Even though I was a seasoned Excel user (as were many of my classmates, most of whom fell into the broad category of adult learners), I had wanted to add some certifications to my resume. I thought an MCAS/MOS certification in Excel 2007 would be a good way to break the ice. Although I'd had some formal introduction to spreadsheets early on in my IT career, so much of how we learned at the inception of the desktop revolution (before the certifications, degree programs, and the standardization that exists today)  involved 90% intuition and exposure on the job, and 10% (re)reading the manual. ;)  None of which I regret for even a minute - for me it was a fabulous way to learn. But intuition is right-brained and as such does not conveniently lend itself to words, which are how we communicate, teach, and convey concepts. (My grandmother must have been extremely right-brained because she would often say, "It's just easier for me to do it myself than to try to show you how to do it." This applied to cooking, housework, and most things, and was why I ended up being such a bookworm.  But I digress.) While I probably intuitively knew 80% of what the Mastering Excel 2007 course would teach, I didn't know the new Excel interface or if there were far better ways to do what I already knew. (And I was really curious about pivot tables and how they were used!)

Our local community college offered the summer school class in Excel over distance through the program of Office Administration. While I signed on primarily to upgrade my skills and obtain certification, most of my classmates took the class as part of their various degree objectives. So what I would like to do in this article is consider the challenges of effectively teaching an online course in Excel to users of varied experience and motivation.

We purchased our textbooks, obtained our weekly assignments each Monday via Blackboard, and handed them in each Sunday before midnight. Each week usually included working through a unit in the textbook, completing chapter and unit exercises in a programmed instruction sort of fashion, taking a unit exam, and participating in a weekly discussion board topic. The instructor was available via email but we relied primarily on ourselves in true correspondence course fashion, and upon one another's advice on a Discussion Board reserved for help topics. I learned lots, but I don't know that I'd do an intensive eight-week Summer School online course again to prepare for a certification exam. Well, not without more roadmaps along the way.

Let me explain by telling a little story. This summer at a family reunion, we were discussing GPS systems. My cousin Barb, who is a seasoned teacher, said flatly, "They make you stupid."

Back to School at 60 ... Reflections from an Adult Learner

God bless our local community college for being there, for being where they are, and for letting us go for free after we turn 60! And God bless my friend Julie for letting me know!

Twelve years ago I made the decision to follow the traditional route of educational progress and pursue a master's degree - for two reasons mainly. First, I had already earned two undergraduate degrees (a B.S. in Speech Education and an A.A.S. in Computer Programming Technology) and being from a family-full of postgraduates as well as having worked eight years in a research lab, I was very curious about the postgraduate experience. And second, I wanted to find a way to tie my two undergraduate degrees together. So I enrolled in a masters program in Educational Technology with a concentration in Instructional Design. I figured it was all win-win. I would wed two fields together and opportunity would follow.

But I suspected even then that I was merely postponing the inevitable - that the rapid pace of technological change had reversed the course of traditional educational progress - that until such time as society recognized and acknowledged this dilemma and came up with some viable and affordable solutions, many of us were destined to keep going back to ground zero at our local or online universities and colleges as the most practical way to keep up with our field, when for one reason or another our work began more and more to not afford us that opportunity (and employers more and more came to discard us like yesterday's trash -  or should I say desktop).

I have to wonder  how many of the women who went through school in computer programming technology in the 1990's are still in that field (I know some who aren't).  But, personally I am a technology die-hard. So I have accepted that I need to keep going back to school, to take courses that were primarily designed for degree programs I had already been through, that were building the basic infrastructure I already intimately knew for the uninitiated. Not that a periodic review hurts  - at all! And don't get me wrong - I LOVE learning about and using cool new stuff and participating in the evolution of the desktop revolution. I have certainly bought books and gone through tutorials to self-educate since I finished my last degree -sometimes inbetween inspections whilst sitting on a factory line! I'm just saying that it was confusing twelve years ago at age 50 to have to make the choice between taking yet more undergraduate courses or pursuing an advanced degree at institutions who had courted me to do so.

All this leads up to this spring when after a year of being unemployed once again, I finally stopped postponing the inevitable and turned to my local community college where I'd heard that individuals 60 and over could attend for free. I had celebrated my 60th birthday in May. I have to say the college's advisors were remarkably and wonderfully understanding, encouraging, supportive, welcoming, and most of all, helpful. I talked to one generalist who then directed me to two department heads, one in Information Technology and the other in Graphics Technology - and after speaking with each of them I walked away with a clear sense of direction and purpose. See, it didn't make sense to pursue yet another undergraduate degree in the technology field. However, back when I did my degree work, certifications weren't that common. Now every employer is asking for a list of certifications, and many of the courses in the various programs prepare students to take certification exams. Ivy Tech's advisors helped me lay out a clear plan of action for pursuing certifications in my various areas of interest - whilst obtaining training with current and in-demand products previous jobs had not afforded me opportunity to use or learn.

Not that this entirely eliminates the tug of opportunity costs - my various areas of interest in the technology field are numerous. They include design, programming, graphics, and web-based technologies - and I'm not afraid to branch out to networking and technical writing and support. So the narrowing down process will continue as I wend my way through these certification strategies.

Although I was itching to get started and to take advantage of the extra time I had available for who-knew-only-how-long, many of  the courses I wanted weren't offered til the fall semester. So I jumped into a programming logic course in summer school, mainly to review, and to hopefully get into some newer topics that would not have been covered in previous formal coursework. I also hopped programs and took an online course from the Office Administration Program because it offered an opportunity for MCAS/MOS certification in Excel 2007. So at the end of the summer, I could walk away with at least one certification.

Now it is August and I am finished - and I have one certification down - Yea!

 Of course I can't help but reflect back over my summer school experience in light of my Instructional Design training and I will probably offer some thoughtful analysis and observations, probably in a series of articles. So, as they say, stay tuned ...

JuneBug

related articles:

Back to the Future - Reflections of an Adult Learner

On GPS's and Online Courses - Reflections of an Adult Learner

On Dentists and Technology Obsolescense

Charter Founder of Cafe Rienzi Passes

Saturday, July 17th, 2010, Uncle Tom Durant, one of the charter founders of the Cafe Rienzi passed away, just short of his 90th birthday. We love you, Uncle Tom, and we miss you.

More information to follow.

JuneBug

This Person Says It Best: I Am Not Disposable!

What I have been groping for words to articulate for the last ten years, this individual has managed to nail on the head with passion and integrity, in his/her response to Interns Over Forty's article "What Do You Do if You are Fired in Your 50's".

Kudos and here's the link to his/her full comment:

I Am Not Disposable!

Good Job Hunting Tools and Links

First of all some helpful online articles:

These Net_Temps CrossRoads Newsletter articles deal with some of my "favorite" bug-a-boos and dilemmas:

7 Steps to Writing an Amazing Cover Letter by Jimmy Sweeney (http://www.careerjimmy.com/)
The Likability Factor - Do You Have It by Linda Matias
Questions You Should Ask During the Interview by Carole Martin
Telling Your Structured Stories by Michael Neece (InterviewMastery.com)
Marriage, Infomercials, and Your Job Search by Kevin Donlin
How Pen and Paper Can Work Magic in Your Job Search by Kevin Donlin
Find a Job 65% Faster by Kevin Donlin (what I liked about this article is going in with the idea of generating a 30-60-90 day job plan - it brings together several other pieces of advice such as giving back and would certainly give you ideas about what questions to ask.) :)
How Your Job Hunt Can Threaten Jobless Benefits by Dona DeZube
Basics of Credit Reports and Background Checks (http://www.esrcheck.com/)
Four Techniques That Get Employers to Return Your Phone Calls by Deborah Brown-Volkman

Repost: Job Blogging - Is It Safe?

Back in the ancient days before the omnipresence of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, I started this blog with the dual intentions of writing about my job search and my photography hobby. This was around February of 2006. Shortly thereafter I found a job and other things to write about. Unfortunately the economic downturn and high cost of health insurance put me back on the job market in 2009. But one of my very first posts in this blog was "Job Blogging - Is it Safe?"

This morning I came across an interesting article in Net-Temps' latest issue of their CrossRoads newsletter entitled How Social Media is Muddying the Waters for Job Seekers by Teena Rose. In the article she mentions a recent survey of hiring managers commissioned by Microsoft that reports 70% of  U.S. respondents have rejected a candidate based on their online social profiles.

Hmmm ... Well, I'm not saying that I'm a prophet or a visionary or anything like that - actually my view back then on the potential of social media was a trifle more optimistic, but any tone of smugness detected here IS intentional- ha! :) Anyway, I thought it might be appropriate to revisit my thoughts on the subject back then. So here they are - probably in need of some modification in light of how social media and its use is unfolding:

The internet although widely used is still relatively uncharted territory for employees and employers. Exploring the unknown does carry some risk and this understandably makes people nervous.

For example. I am not and never have been a prospective employer so I am just imagining the following scenario:

Suppose you are an employer interviewing a prospective employee who tells you they are a blogger. Does this information make you worry about issues such as discretion and confidentiality and liability, not to mention "too much information" - ie) inadvertantly showing your hand to competitors or letting trade secrets slip out onto the internet? You may ask yourself, will this prospective employee be discreet and use good judgement? Is it even worth the risk?

These are real concerns. I remember a couple of years ago when I was working retail at our local mall. Our employer, a major retailer, told us to watch our conversations when we walked through the mall - particularly they didn't want other competitors to know too far ahead about upcoming promotions and sales. Now, carry that concern over to the internet and you can begin to see the problem ...

Moving on to the other perspective, that of the interviewee, say me, for instance, who in turn may be thinking ...

They asked me to bring a sample of my writing/web work. Should I even tell them about my blog? Will they trust me or will that make them nervous? I did write about cutting back on the job search while my husband recovered from open heart surgery - will they look elsewhere because I sound like I'm too old and too much of an insurance risk?

These worries are not so far-fetched - or are they? Faced with the unknown, one can't help but wonder...

But let's move to the other side of the balance sheet and consider some of the benefits of job-blogging.

It does allow you the blogger to offer another opportunity for prospective employers to get to know you under more candid circumstances than the formal interview. Certainly it gives employers a chance to observe you over a greater period of time. Also, a job blog can offer another source of information to employers to balance out the background checks and references and recommendations from previous employers. It certainly gives you an opportunity to answer and be heard. To have a voice.

Finally, because of the social nature of blogging and other online communication tools, you can offer employers the opportunity to see you at your best and at your worst when it comes to dealing with other people. Now what prospective employer wouldn't love to see that? :)

To employers I would say that because the internet is uncharted territory, we need people who are willing to get out there and explore and break new ground. So perhaps it's worth the risk? To those worried about trust issues, I would say that inherent in democracy is the belief that people are able to self-regulate and indeed function best that way. However, this also suggests that education, accountability, responsibility, and ethics should play a major role in a free society.

So ... to job blog or not to job blog?

Well, I'm not done with this topic but I am done with this post (for now at least). Can any of you think of additional risks and benefits of job blogging? I'd love to hear your perspective. In the meantime, happy Job-Hunting. It's a jungle out there! :)

JuneBug

Introducing Joan Durant- One of the Founders of the Cafe Rienzi - on YouTube: Interview With a Poet

In my previous posts about the Cafe Rienzi, I have introduced my Aunt Joan and Uncle Tom Durant - a couple of the Rienzi's original founders. Laura Collins has done a breathtaking feature on my Aunt Joan Durant on YouTube which I am thrilled to present to you here:

YouTube - Interview With a Poet

And speaking of Painters and Poets - Archie Foxworthy

I have posted frequently on this blog about my great-aunt Firma Duchene Philips, a well-known scenery painter and one of the charter members of the Parke County Covered Bridge Festival. I'd now like to introduce some other memorable folks from my youth - namely Archie and Mary Foxworthy. I spent my teenage years with my grandparents Claude and Helen Alward in Fountain County just outside the town of Wallace, Indiana. Every fall my grandparents would help Archie and Mary ready the produce and products they had raised on their Parke County farm to sell at the Rockville Covered Bridge Festival. My grandparents would tie bunches of bittersweet and help bundle other local fruit and flora such as persimmons and sassafras roots as well as various jams and jellies, I suppose. For many years Archie and Mary ran a produce stand on the corner of highway 234 and US 41, across from a little store called Jipville, where they sold the fruits and vegetables they had raised throughout the growing season. I got to know them there, and at Wolf Creek Community Church, and through Lodge and Eastern Star activities in Wallace. Also Archie had a sugar camp for as long as I can remember - and I have an oil painting of it painted by my Aunt Firma Phillips. The painting has also been around for as long as I can remember. When Parke County started the Maple Syrup Festival which runs from the last weekend of February through the first weekend of March, Archie and Mary became very involved in this event. In fact I'm looking forward to attending this coming weekend and buying some of Foxworthy Farms maple syrup. Now 93 years old, Archie is a musician, a poet, a humorist, and a philosopher. Duane Busick, an Indiana journalist, has produced a wonderful three-part series of videos about Archie entitled "Archie Foxworthy, Parke County Treasure" which can now be viewed on YouTube - and the links follow below. I hope you enjoy meeting Archie and his family as much as I have enjoyed knowing them throughout my life.


Archie Foxworthy, Parke County Treasure - Part One - opens with spectacular scenes of Parke County Covered Bridges as Archie picks his banjo with a hickory nut and sings in the background ...





Archie Foxworthy, Parke County Treasure - Part Two



Archie Foxworthy, Parke County Treasure - Part Three



And here's my Aunt Firma's painting of Archie's Maple Syrup Camp.

JuneBug

Interview Crash or Refresher Courses?

Someone should come up with an online site of "crash courses" for interviews - not just interview skills but some basic refreshers for skills one might not have used in a while throughout a life long career or education path.

You know, like, "Ack! I have an interview on Wednesday and I need a memory jogger on ... SQL statements ... or Statistical methods ..." It's not that we may not know these things, it's a matter of having them at the tip of our tongues for an event like an interview.

WizIQ or Slideshare might be the ideal place for it. Or of course YouTube.

Happy Monday and Happy Job Searching!

JuneBug

Introducing OFA's Health Care Action Center 2010

Here's the link to a number of ways to participate. I tweeted my senator and representative. Let's keep pushing to get SOMETHING TRULY HELPFUL done ...

Organizing for America BarackObama.com Health Care Action Center

JuneBug

Thanks to ARAW and UNDER COVER BOSS, I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE!

To go along with the premiere of CBS's new reality series Under Cover Boss, American Rights at Work has started a site where you can sign a petition to Congress for the Employee Free Choice Act, and a blog where you can share your work experiences:

Fix Our Jobs

The comments are well worth reading! And sad. Not only have my long-held suspicions that I am not alone finally been confirmed, that if this had happened to me, it could well be happening to others (with no way of knowing), but in reading the comments I now realize the abuses are much more pervasive than I thought.

All I can say is in our passion and quest for democracy and personal liberty, let us not trade one form of tyranny for another. Let us not surrender our personal freedom to corporations and companies who have no respect for our lives and our values. Let us not turn over our destinies to those who can afford to limit our choices and to give all we grew up regarding as hallowed and precious to their children as a plaything.  Let us not be deceived by the incessant, hypocritical, droning lip-service paid to inclusiveness, fairness, quality, nondiscrimination, empowerment, and health by company after company after company who fail to live up to what they proclaim.

After all the fallout from the current recession, the million dollar bonuses, and the inflation of executive salaries and perks by percents in the thousands, kudos to CBS or someone for coming up with a reality show that actually shows some potential to make life better for people everywhere.

JuneBug

P.S. Equally as enlightening, ARAW has another tab on Fix Our Jobs where people can write in why they love their jobs

The Death of the Desktop in 2010? New Trends for ITers in Mobile, Cloud, and Thin-Client Computing

I've been leaning toward web and graphics these past few years as I think about enhancing my computer skills. These articles identify some emerging trends for IT job searchers in 2010 not the least of which are Electronic Medical Records and Social Computing:

Hot Technology Careers in 2010 - Mobile and Cloud from IT Job Cafe
Thin Clients are Roaring Back by Don Wilmott (this makes a lot of sense)

Junebug

Found a Good Article: Job Interview Problems and Solutions for Baby Boomers

Thanks to Mark Ste Marie from Interns Over 40 for a fine article!

Job Interview Problems and Solutions for Baby Boomers

This article articulates the challenges faced by older job-seekers so well - that alone is worth alot! It also comes up with some good suggestions.

Also a notable quote from Michael Greene of  JobSearchInfo.com:

"It isn't old age that causes lack of commitment, but old BELIEFS about experience and wisdom that causes companies to pass up highly talented individuals."

Thanks again!

JuneBug

Getting Your Name Off a Hiring Blacklist - WSJ.com

Getting Your Name Off a Hiring Blacklist - WSJ.com

Wow. This Wall Street Journal article (link above) popped up in my Twitter List and it's been a long time coming. I suspect that this problem doesn't just happen during the job hunt. As I discovered recently, it may also extend its ugly hand through the years to yank you away from a newly found job. Let me explain. I need to live and work in a certain geographic area. Almost ten years ago, I made a decision to stand up for my civil rights at a state university - that's after a 21-year-career at same said institution during which I earned steady promotions, salary increases, and two additional degrees. 


Leading one to believe the university valued my efforts as their employee. 

In return I believed I was working in an unparalleled place of opportunity, flexibility, growth, and service.

YouTube Blog: Your Questions for President Obama

Ah, the growing power and significance of Social Media ... Twitter ... Linked-In ... Facebook ... Flickr ... YouTube ... Blogger ... SlideShare ... I believe it trumped conventional politics to make all the difference in the past Presidential election! I marvel at how it's grown since I onboarded twelve years ago as an online message board poster in a fan community for a TV show called Prey. I eventually became a webmaster myself and set up various sites and message boards. I was so amazed when the desktop computer I got to do homework and balance the checkbook morphed into a powerful communication tool before my eyes. But that's another story...

Anyway, in investigating Social Media as a networking tool for my job hunt this new year, I came across these (unrelated) links & thought I'd share! YouTube is pretty excited about them and with good reason ...

• YouTube Blog: Your Questions for President Obama
• You Tube Users Grill Obama

 Enjoy!

JuneBug

On the Clock Advice

A lot of my posts - and a sub-theme of this blog - revolve around the job-hunt. When I got a job I thought it would be interesting to switch to on-the-job topics. But when you start a new job, you generally get very busy and ... well ... good intentions ... you know how that goes ...

Now I'm on the hunt again - but I did come across this helpful article by Mary Pratt from Computer World for those who are on the clock and I wanted to share it. The comments are pertinent too.

Your Tech Career: How to Cope with an Unsupportive Boss

Lately I've been reading a lot of career advice articles, and I frequently come across the observation or statistic that more people report being dissatisfied with their jobs than ever before. So I hope this will help those of you who are restless with your on-the-clock. :)

June Bug

Great State of the Union Address Last Night, President Obama! :D

State of the Union Address 2010

Now I too am reinvigorated and hopeful for our county's future!

Insurance Companies Back Health Care Reform?

Locals Rally for Health Care Reform

I attended a local Health Care Rally (sponsored by Move On, Yes We Can Tippecanoe from Organizing for America, and the Lafayette Peace Coalition) outside our courthouse yesterday. BRRRR! I thought it went really well - passers-by seemed supportive and receptive. And boy are my arms sore from holding a sign high above my head for half an hour to be more visible to folks driving by .... (I'm the gal in black in the picture below and I really need to get more exercise) ...

Ages of participants ranged from 13 years old to 94 years old - and the local tv reporters were there and featured us on the evening news! (By the way, the 13 year old is an avid activist as well as a home schooler and I admire his mom for making this event part of his education.) I also admired his astute sense of humor. At times we chanted slogans (to help keep warm as much as anything - hee), so after a few rounds of, "We want healthcare," he suddenly switched to, "I feel stupid!" I had to laugh - an unlikely collection of demonstrators, we all looked a bit uncomfortable out there in the freezing elements - but we were all willing to push past our comfort zones to support health care reform. Unfortunately Evan Bayh wasn't willing to push past his. His response was disappointing, out of touch, and ... clueless? Well, at least as Channel 18 reported it.

And thanks to the lovely lady from Lafayette Office Supply who, wearing no coat over a silky blouse with sheer sleeves, gingerly made her way across the street to invite us all in to warm up with coffee, tea, and hot chocolate! Just wrapping my frozen fingers around the steaming styrofoam cup warmed me up all over! Except for the frozen toes. ;)

I did learn something interesting while talking to one of my colleagues at the rally. He had read an article in an insurance industry trade journal. Apparently insurance companies are fast losing their customers.  The first wave of baby boomers are reaching the age of medicare eligibility. On top of that, massive unemployment and job loss has made health care insurance unaffordable for many. Also employers are dropping coverage because they cannot afford to provide it. So apparently the insurance companies are looking to health care reform and the government to guarantee them $30 million or billion in revenue or whatever! As a result, we may see more Republicans supporting health care ...

Just a heads up - and keep warm out there!

June Bug

What Next for Health Care Reform? A Progressive Caucus Poll

The Progressive Congress seems to have a very sane approach - they are asking for suggestions and ideas to feed back to Congress about what to do next about Health Care Reform. Here's a link to people's responses so far:

http://feedback.progressivecongress.org/forums/38781-what-s-next-for-health-care-reform-jan-20-2010/activity.atom

I thought the comments were varied and helpful. It helps to have a thoughtful discussion in a democracy. Which you can't do if only one voice is talking. Or if people are simply throwing party lines at one another. Only with a thoughtful discussion can we truly get to know one another and begin to see what our options are!

I participated in the calling in Massachusetts, and while it was an interesting experience, I'm not sure it was an effective way to campaign. It really sounds like the Democratic candidate should have done her homework - and not fallen back on Organizing for America as a last-ditch campaign strategy. People don't like to be bombarded with sales pitches - whether it's a sales call or a campaign call or even a fund-raising campaign for a good cause. With today's technology, a lot of people let their answering machine take calls when they don't recognize a number. I know I do.

On the other hand, if someone legitimately needs to know when the poll is open, or where it is, or how to get a ride, or even that their vote is critically needed ... a brief message on the phone with some helpful information may be appreciated.

It's hard for the average joe/jane (like me) to understand the health care proposal. I know I found it a little disturbing when Physicans for a National Health Care Plan said they couldn't support it. Huh? They found it fatally flawed. Apparently the insurance and drug companies are going to make more money than ever.

Huh?

I thought the idea was to cut costs and make health care more accessible.

Okay. So now what are we supposed to do? Nothing? Well, I don't know about everybody else, but that won't fly with me. While I am grateful for last November's historic election, glad I voted for President Obama, and glad he won, health care reform was THE determining issue for us in picking a candidate. It would have also been a historic election if Hillary had been elected. And maybe, she could have gotten us a better health care bill. With her previous health care reform experience as First Lady, as well as her recent experience as the Senator from New York, I'll bet she would have been tremendously helpful! But instead she's running around as Secretary of State ...

Ah, well, I digress. Anyway, take a look at what fellow Americans think in the Progressive Congress poll.

JuneBug

Flowers from Summer Storms

Flowers from Summer Storms
Originally uploaded by Prey_Momma

Just testing the flickr interface

People age 55-64 find it hard to rebound from unemployment, but are the wave of the future?

Yes! Someone FINALLY noticed! I knew I wasn't alone - that if this was happening to me, there were others out there grappling with a similar dilemma!


Check out this article tweeted by heymarci:


http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/1421791.html


Thanks to reporter Cindy Krischer Goodman of the Miami Herald for noticing and for giving us a voice!

I lost a new job last April when I was 58. And while I have to accept some responsibility for allowing myself to be duped away from a two and a half year stable job to take a job that lasted only six weeks, shame shame shame on those who practice such irresponsible and hurtful hiring practices (all the while proclaiming they want to benefit community health and be seen as a premiere employer in the area)! I know it sounds harsh, but American workers are tiring of such corporate hypocrisy (and the growing wage disparities as well). After all, the only reason I started looking for a different job was because health care premiums had doubled, and I knew I had to find either a second job or more affordable benefits. But now, if it weren't for President Obama's ARRA discount, I wouldn't even have health care.

Seems as if management theory has been promoting more and more horrific management practices the past few year (and the propagators likely paid rather well, I might add) - but where do these ideas come from? In the eighties and nineties, participative management emerged as a management theory. It was both energizing and empowering. Along with more inclusive policies for women and minorities in the work place, it helped create opportunity, therefore it must have indirectly fostered economic growth. Like the GI Bill after World War II, it built the confidence of a generation. It encouraged exploration and new ideas. And then it disappeared. What ever happened to it? Of late, I really wonder if managers are turning to reality tv shows as their models. If this is truly the case, it does not improve life in the American workplace, needless to say, but rather seems just another way in the popular trend to be outrageous.

But perhaps I digress. Ageism is an age-old issue and it has touched all groups, whether privileged or marginalized. When I encounter ageism in the workplace, I just think, "May you also be blessed with health and long life. And don't you know you're looking at your future   - and don't you want to make it better?" And when that person is actually my age or older and hasn't a clue, I think, "There but for the grace of God go ...."

I hope we can get back on track and make the work place a better place for all Americans to work for future generations. A good place to start may be to join organizations like American Rights at Work (araw) and to support the Employee Free Choice Act. As well as putting some checks and balances on the abilities of individuals, corporations, and I suppose whole industries to buy our elected officials. Sigh. We have enough of that already. The current disparity of wealth in some cases is such that a single business entity or individual could "trump" the wishes of a whole democracy. And historically, human nature seems to favor the odds that they will. And if they do, will we still be truly free?

The second half of the title of Cindy's piece (that we may also be the wave of the future) is definitely more upbeat and hopeful - and that should give us incentive. :)




JuneBug