Yes, I’ve been away for a couple of weeks, traveling with my children from Western PA to the California Coast. While we were in California, I received and accepted a full-time teaching post at a state university near our home in Pennsylvania. Classes start later this month.
There will be a new learning management system (LMS) to master — one known as “D2L” at the university. Having used Blackboard, WebCT, and Moodle, this is a new experience for me. Desire2Learn by Brightspace is a cloud-based system, one that seems to be less widely adopted than Blackboard or Moodle. I look forward to comparing it to the other platforms.
I’ll also be taking a new MacBook Pro with me, after my 2012 model finally proved too unreliable. I’m not going to switch to Windows or Linux or anything so drastic because I use FinalCut Pro X and Logic Pro for much of my media work. I also love the Apple operating system. Yes, I’m a Microsoft Certified Professional and I do not use Windows at home.
The fall semester includes four sections of “Critical Writing” which is another name for college composition. I’m not a fan of how most composition courses are structured (or taught) so this will be something of a challenge as I attempt to prove my approach to teaching academic writing works well.
The return to full-time teaching offers more opportunities to blog about technology in the writing class, too.
It is good to be back on track, though it was entirely unexpected after I had given up the academic job search.