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Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Not Expecting that...

I got an email from my online university that I was getting a 'student success package' in the mail this week.  No payment or bill type deal, just a bit of information saying I'd be getting it soon.  Heard nothing about it prior to the email and so figured it was just a little 'welcome to the university' cheap thing that might have some good pens or other small office supplies.  It did come with a cheap plastic 'liquid motivation' mug, a magnetic white 'board'(it's more paper) and marker, a decal with the school logo on it, a 'do not disturb I'm studying' doorknob cover, and the big surprise: a web cam.
Like I said, not expecting that.  My dad went to this same school(graduated before they got so far into the online stuff you needed a web cam) and hadn't needed one that I knew of.  But since they've now made it possible to take tests and do other stuff online rather than having to go to another school site they figured I'd need one so I could do it from home.  The funny part was the rather detailed instructions about how to hook up the web cam to my computer(granted, this is a teachers college so I guess they don't expect too many of them to know too much about a computer.  Given my dad's in IT I think I know more than most.  But it was still funny to think they'd have to tell a teacher where the USB port is on a computer.
I seem to recall having classes in junior high and high school that covered basic computer skills but they still make you take either a competency exam or a 'refresher' class in college. Granted the college class on WORD, POWERPOINT, and EXCEL were far more comprehensive and I learned a few tricks about each that I didn't know other wise.  The fourth part of the 'refresher' was not as much fun as it was more research and library stuff.  The only real new thing was how many different ways to cite sources there are now.  And we only used three of them in my other classes.
Back to the web cam, I haven't hooked it up partly due to that one Scorpion episode where they use a man's webcam to watch him and turn off the light so that he doesn't know they're watching.  Makes me nervous to think someone might do that with mine, though they'd probably be bored watching me study or do research.  And I haven't had a lot of time anyway, only got the thing yesterday.
Getting hot around here so makes people crave salads and ice cream.  My mom told me its chocolate ice cream day.  Too bad we don't have any....

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