TB Goes (Back) To School: Reading

One of the largest changes to my schedule since the re-start of my educational career has been setting aside more time for reading.

Our class is focusing on the enduring legacy of Greek and Roman art and culture in modern culture.  To that end, we have to read some amount of the Classics: as we are still in the realm of myth at the moment so we read a lot of Ovid as well as specific writings to the subject at hand, such as plays by Roman and Greek playwrights or additional sections of Classical literature like the Roman poet Catullus.  

We are also assigned anywhere from 2-5 articles a week with the expectation we will read at least one of each sub-heading that we will be studying; so for example if we are studying two different myths, we need to read one article on each myth.

The Classical reading is the most enjoyable.  The articles are a bit more challenging.

Having been "Out of the Game" for well over 30 years, one forgets the way that academic articles are written.  They are quite different from your typical article that (once upon a time) you might have read in a newspaper or magazine and very different that the current on-line writing that is in vogue; for example, the shortest article I have read to date is 9 pages and longest to date is 51 pages.  Yes, that may include pictures of artworks and a great many footnotes, but it can still be a lot.

What this has really meant is adding a layer of diligence and planning to my daily activities.

I have to allocate myself not less than an hour a day for class - not just for reading of course, but for participating in class activities.  And given my schedule for the week and rest of the year, I am finding that I have to read at least one week or more in advance - and more in preparation for class presentations.

It is not a bad development of course; the addition of discipline to one's life is never a bad thing.  

And, if nothing else, I know a lot more about Greek and Roman art than I did a month ago.  After all, most any knowledge is useful knowledge, just useful in more limited situations.

TB Goes (Back) To School: Registration

 Going back to college after 30 plus years of not being in college, one finds that many things have changed.

In some ways they are better: for example, just the fact that I can take a class remotely rather than have to move there or take what is available locally is amazing (The Age Of Convenience at work again).  And no more standing in lines at offices to register - or (if you remember back that far) the mad dash into the gym where instructors were sitting at tables, desperately hoping that you would be able to get the classes that you needed, paper forms in hand.  One simply finds the interface, goes in, and pays the money.

In other ways of course, they are more challenging.

Clearly technology now takes a major role in education in general and online learning in particular.  The initial communications are all via e-mail with links to go to this place and that place to do a thing or see a thing. Orientation, handbooks, class schedules - all is now somewhere you need to get to on the InterWeb.  And not necessarily in the same place or on the same platform.

And, of course, you get another e-mail account.

It appears from first glance that most of the work I will do (other than classes) will be run through an Office360 interface.  Chats and workspaces, at least from what I read, appear to be heavily employed (fortunately I have used these in previous positions at work; just not to this extent) - as well as access to the Microsoft Suite of tools (that is kind of nice).  All more convenient for working from home; less convenient in that I have to "relearn" a new software suite.

Who knew re-entering college came with all this learning ahead of the actual learning?