Group 5 Survival Memo

Final Project Video

November Monthly Summary

November Summary


Sean commented on Group 2 and Group 4's November Summaries

Joseph Haynes' November Summary

November was a trying month. Trying to get everything done for the end of the semester in my classes has been difficult. Again, the inability to get together early for our latest paper made things tough, but it is the nature of the business with group projects. I have grown to be a little more tolerable of it but it is still not easy. It’s kind of funny, with each new assignment my group does I think we keep doing better and I’m having a better understanding of Adult Education. The only problem is as we get graded for each paper the grades keep going down. I understand we are all very busy and maybe it is because we don’t spend the time on each assignments that we should but it is a bit confusing that we keep getting worse. But I have faith in our group, what one person lacks the others pick up, so I am thankful for my teammates.

The homework this month has been very enlightening. Everything has seemed to be able to lend itself to the E-Archive project and even though it was tough this month everything worked out well for the project and I believe we were able to provide a top notched website (Sean did wonders on the website). Overall, with the difficulties we have had getting together, I think we all have done a very good job on the group projects.

I understand things will become very busy finishing up the final project. But I think all will come together when our group gets together for the final times.

Joe Haynes commented on group 3 and 4 (E-Archive)

Troy’s November Summary EDAC 631

Perseverance is the overall one word description for November for me as well. Whether it was technology issues, conflicts in schedules, starting a new contract for work, or personal barriers, I had to overcome and persevere. This perseverance builds character and allows us to grow as both adults and students.

The adult educator program review and the e-archive was a great “check in learning” and opened my eyes to where and how I’ve developed since August. I have grown as a future adult educator and the assignments for November reflect. The design of the class was set up this way and it works for us to have this self-reflection about ourselves and students and future adult educators.

To summarize, “don’t quit” was put in my mind when I was young and it has carried me through many challenges in my professional life. This same mind frame continues as a graduate student. On the personal level, I quit smoking after 27 years and on a professional level, I didn’t quit or give up on my studies.

Sean Rodgers November Summary

November was another challenging month, but also a month of learning. The projects were challenging and illuminating. We started the month with a Community Organizations project. I thought we have started working better as a team, and I thought the project turned out well. This wasn't really reflected in the end result though. Silly little mistakes and omissions can prove to be somewhat costly. I think the E-archive turned out really well also. I haven't ever put together an actual website, so I saw this as a challenge to myself. I thought it turned out pretty decent, although I make changes to it each time I visit. I can see how website maintenance can be so time consuming.

On the home front, the challenge was the flu. During mid-November it hit both the boys, and me. The irony is that we had scheduled the boys for flu shots, but had to change it because of such a busy schedule. We all should take time to slow down life on occasion, eventually some occurrence will slow life down for you. During mid-November I was laid up for two days recovering.

There was actually an additional challenge in just writing this short monthly summary. My wife's Apple iMac stopped working Thanksgiving week. You know its bad when the people at Apple Care state that they have never heard of a problem like the one we had, and they couldn't find a solution for the problem in their database. Turned out to be a faulty hardware issue, and we will be getting a replacement. But I had to turn my computer over to here in the meantime, as she has much more schoolwork going on then I do. Next week she has five finals, and it made me glad I was in graduate school. I am still busy, but really no comparison to her workload. So, I had to sacrifice my online access to help her, but it reminded me of the modified Marine Corps motto to;d to me when I was stationed in Saudi Arabia. Instead of Semper Fi (or Fidelis) meaning always faithful, Marines would say Semper Gumby, meaning always flexible. In other words, work through and manage what ever happens. I think this is the best advice in surviving school and, in many ways, getting through the daily challenges of life. Always be flexible. Although, I must admit looking forward to the end of this term.

E-Archive and The Many Faces of Adult Education

Many facets of Adult Education

Roles- Troy summary and collaboration
Joe summary and collaboration
Sean website and collaboration




Sean commented on the E-Archives of Group2 and Group4


 VISIT our E-Archive at:

 http://edac631chang.wix.com/edac631group5

When trying to understand what Adult Education is, it's not just one simple thing.  It's like looking at a diamond.  Depending on the angle you look at it you can see many different facets.  Here are examples of certain events, certain people and certain groups that have shaped the fabric of adult education.

First thing to look at is the history of adult education.  We've looked at two decades for adult education, the 1920's and the 1940's.   Sean Rogers wrote, "The 1920's saw the increased availability of electricity, automobiles, telephones, radio broadcast and movies.   Adult education was a movement that would be influenced by an odd combination with corporate industrialists on one side and labor leaders on the other. But both sides wished to take the concept of education out of the realm of the traditional school, and both sides saw the importance of including the adults in their plans. Although, there are other factors that influenced adult education during this time, this report will concentrate on the changes in adult education as a result of organizational institution influences."

The 1940's saw World War II, the process of coming out of the Great Depression, society dealing with adversity with rationing and family members leaving for war. Technical inventions grew with leaps and bound with computers atomic weapons, radars, microwave ovens, Velcro, Tupperware and even the Frisbee.  With adult education, a great many universities help out the military with training and education and also offered the Adult Education Extension Services which allowed servicemen to take correspondence classes.  Combine that with the introduction of the G.I. Bill made a huge leap in adult education.

The next aspect to look at is the adult educational programs.  Programs can come from anywhere.  Local, city programs, to state programs to federal and national programs.  We took a look at 2. Unique programs.  First is Shifting Gears of Illinois.  Sean wrote, "The Illinois Shifting Gears or Illinois Bridge program is actually a group of programs that is pledged to improving job perspectives for unskilled and low-skilled low wage adults in Illinois.  The American Community Survey of 2010 (as cited by the Illinois Community College Board, 2013) found that in Illinois, over three-quarters of a million people do not have high school diplomas and many adults lack the literacy skills needed to fulfill the needs of potential employers."

The next program was the Texas Wildlife Association.  Mr. Faas stated, "The specific purpose of each workshop may vary (e.g. deer, quail, and water). In general we want to educate landowners, managers, hunters and wildlife enthusiasts about sound land stewardship, natural resource management, wildlife and habitat management and any concerns they may encounter in regards to private landowner rights."

Another important aspect that was covered was Adult Education Educators.  The first one that was talked about was Jane Addams.  Sean wrote, "Jane Addams had a firm belief that to make a change in the community, all members of the community should be served. Addams felt that under-educated adults were being under-served. She thought the best way to serve the community was to serve all the groups involved in the community, which included women and men, immigrants and natives. A list of courses taken from a January newspaper listing show classes offered in everything from arithmetic, art, music, and law."

Another adult educator was K. Patricia Cross.   "Although Cross is not trained nor making a career out of adult education, she has made an impact to the field of adult education with her publications. She was involved in publications that provide support to develop adult non-traditional study opportunities in the US."(2006) the way she shows in her writings is an innovative perspective on adult education which makes her one of the top researchers, speakers and writers in her field."

Finally, Adult Education Organization plays a major role in the future of adult education.  We looked at two, first was Proliteracy Worldwide.  Sean wrote, "ProLiteracy Worldwide is an international organization, based in Syracuse, New York, which aids programs that focus on adults with literacy challenges and connects these people with local programs that help them gain or improve their ability to read and write. In addition, ProLiteracy supports and champions’ literacy programs both nationally and internationally. ProLiteracy states it mission simply as “Every adult has a right to literacy. We develop and promote adult literacy learning, content, and programs to help adult learners, and we advocate on their behalf” (ProLiteracy.org). ProLiteracy supports programs in all 50 states and 34 international programs."

Last, the California Council for Adult Education plays a huge part in California’s' system.  "The mission of the California Council for Adult Education is to take a leadership role in promoting adult education, providing professional development, and effecting change to best serve the needs and interests of adult education, the CCAE membership and the people of California."

Regardless of how large or where geographically the programs are, one basic fundamental exists.  Programs that reach down to the grass roots level are the most effective and ultimately help the local community the most.  By focusing on local people, both educators and learners, these adult education programs reach further when the focus and direction is at the local level.  This is the biggest and most valuable piece of the project so far.  Every part of the project indicated that this is the “model” to follow is a program that uses resources from a range of areas yet it focuses on individuals and communities at a small, grass roots level. 

 

 

 

Adult Education Organization

Joe commented on team 3 and 4

October Monthly Summary

Group 5 - October Monthly Summary

Sean posted on Group 1 and Group 2's October Summary.

Joe Haynes' October Summary

This paper ended up like the last one. I believe this paper turned out well, good team work but again we waited till the last minute to get it done. I understand we all have personal lives and I'm to blame as much as everyone else for procrastinating, but I have a feeling this will be the last time that we wait till the last minute.

I was lucky enough to be able to interview the educator for my last paper and I enjoyed it very much. Our team set up guidelines on who was going to do what and to finish everything up. We carried that over to this paper. Once we got started everybody knew what to do. I was lucky again being able to interview the person in charge of the educational program and again I enjoyed the paper.

I know I'm going to get an early start on our next paper. I think we will have discussions on what everyone's rolls will be on the paper. In the end, I know our team will work strong to get a quality post to our blog.

Troy Rector's October Summary

The discussions in week's 8,9, & 11 continued to be insightful and informative and the personal side of each student remained this month.  These discussions, paired with the academic text continue to expose the introductory level knowledge of the field of adult and community education.  

Week 10 was Fall Break and there weren't any discussions.  I actually took my "break" earlier in the month and spent the first week of October in Florida, primarily Disney World.  What I learned has to do with commitment.  I made a commitment to family that I would take them to Florida during the fall break from school.  I also had a commitment to my own studies as well as my group members for the projects.  I've learned that despite my own personal commitments, I need to communicate when there is something that might limit my ability to fulfill commitments I've made to my group members.  Although I still contributed greatly, there were times I wasn't "in the loop" because I was either in a theme park or had my toes in the sand.  

Both projects came together for our group and turned out really well.  The Leading Adult Educator project allowed me to learn more about those who "blazed the trail" before me.  Those educators who have contributed greatly and left their legacy within the adult and community education field. The unique adult and community education programs project did the same thing.  This was quite informative to understanding that adult and community education exists on different levels and different ways.  Although our two programs had a ton of differences, the base idea of community organized and grass roots based program was an attribute that both shared.  Definitely a great learning tool for me.  

Sean Rodgers' October Summary

Reflecting back on this last month (October 2014), and how this class is progressing, I feel that it is go well. It has been a very busy month for me, both within the class, and personally. So much so that I was very glad to have a fall break. Although, it wasn't a true break as my other class was still going on. The advantage of that being that I had only one class going on at a time.

This month had two projects associated with it. The first was the Leading/Community Educators and the second was the Unique Adult/Community Education Programs project. I enjoyed both projects for different reasons. The Leading/Community Educators project I enjoyed since I was able to learn more about Jane Addams. She is a source of pride around this area since she is from here and there aren't a lot of Nobel Peace Prize winners. It was interesting to get her know her better. The second project I enjoyed because I am starting to understand the team dynamic more, and feel that we are improving in the way we work together.

The challenges that I faced were more related to a sense of being rather burnt out. September is the busiest time for accountants at a television station. It makes sense, since September means new programs and new programming contracts. So I was working 60-80 hour work weeks. In addition to that, the first project was due the same week that one of my classes was ending and I had a final project due that week. My widow 87 year old father is also in the process of moving out of his house to live in an apartment. My parents were together for 56 years so there is a ton of stuff to go through. Luckily I have eight siblings, but I still feel So I was super busy in September, but one of the things I learned in my MBA program is that complaining about been busy in such a program is a little too self centered. Because guess what? All your fellow students are busy. Also, my two boys don't care how busy I am. They need their dad time.

Upcoming we have another group project in Important Adult Education Organizations due on November 9^th. Luckily, I have already done some work on this, as I initially chose an organization to write for the Unique Adult Organization project, but the more I wrote about, the more I realize that it fit more into this project. Also coming up is the E-Archive project due on November 23^rd. I admit that I am somewhat nervous about this project, as getting the blog going was a bit more challenging than it really should have been. I think the biggest problem with initiating the blog was the feeling of intimidation associated with it, and I feel the same about the E-archive.

But It will get done. It is part of the never ending and never too old learning – to face the challenge of new ideas head on, even if it means getting out of my comfort zone. Essentially that is what adult education is also about. So there is the advantage of going (growing?) through this process, as in the end it will make me a better educator.