Hello, my name is Alicia and I was born and raised in Detroit MI. It is my third year at MSU and I’m majoring in Psychology and minoring in Women’s Studies. I am a little excited for week 6 and working on geospatial analysis and mapping. I feel like it will be very interesting to map slavery in Detroit and to map Upper Missouri. However, I am a bit nervous for weeks five and nine where we will be doing podcasting and communication as public history and data analysis because I have mixed feelings about how I would sound in a podcast and I am not really great with numbers and data analysis. Although I am a tad weary about those topics, I am still ready to try new things and learn new things about them.
I definitely have mixed feelings about the change to online learning. I struggle learning online a bit with trying to navigate websites I have never used before and it is harder for me to concentrate and stay motivated in my classes as well as staying engaged. It is also a little bit harder when certain professors aren’t as lenient in their classes even with this change we are all going through. However, I must say that it is helping me to become more organized with my time and to be more responsible with my school work and trying to get it all done on time. The switch to online learning also helps save in gas and travel time and makes it a little more convenient in that aspect. I am not a big fan of online learning but I am not completely against it, I just need to take the time to adjust a little more and learn how to manage my time better. I must say, I do miss the traditional classroom learning though.
Welcome, Alicia! It is nice to learn more about you– thank you for this thoughtful post. Digital mapping is one of my favorites, so I am glad you are looking forward to it! The weeks on podcasting and data analysis– although very different from each other, will *introduce* you to the ideas, concepts, and tools to get started. As a historian, I can promise that you will not need to do and heavy math in this course. Fortunately, one of the perks of the tools we use is that we let the computers do the work for us! I am all about working smarter, not harder.
I can relate to your thoughts on online learning. It has been a disruptive transition, but it has also taught us some important lessons along the way. As I said on the first day, my goal is not to add any stress to students’ already stressful lives, so I am just hoping we have some thoughtful conversations and take away the most important points along the way. I really look forward to hearing more from you this semester!