Writing and Research Project: Self Assessment

by Todd Mehrkens

January 7, 1999

My journey to earn a M.Ed. degree is taking me into areas that are quite new and different. Although this situation is somewhat uncomfortable, I am excited about what I might learn. For you see, I made very deliberate choices in college to avoid "education" classes, for the very simple reason that I hated to write papers.

Prior to, and while in college, I had a very definite interest in pursuing an Ag. Education degree. But rather than write all those papers associated with an Education degree, I chose a Bachelor's of Science degree in Farm Management/Ag. Economics. I enjoyed and did well in the economics and business classes, and the Farm Management degree served me well as I dairy farmed for 12 years following college.

The unfortunate result was that my writing in college was limited to English classes and a few other scattered instances where a paper was required. As a dairy farmer, my writing was limited to personal letters, notes of instruction to employees, etc. The good news is that in my three years in Extension, I have found a new interest in writing!

I can honestly say that the single biggest factor in my new enthusiasm for writing is the computer. Prior to computers, I would get exhausted and frustrated while writing, because I like to make lots of changes. I like to write as I think, and the words hardly ever come out the way I want them to the first time around. A computer lets me move things around, delete, replace, undo and redo as much as I want.

In addition, my penmanship is poor, and computers let me put down lots of ideas and words, and still be able to read them! And on top of that, the finished product is something that I can be so much prouder of than what a page of my handwriting looks like.

But as much as I am enjoying experimenting with writing these days, my natural interests are still in the more technical areas. I am seeking a M.Ed. degree with an emphasis on computers. I have found a tremendous amount of satisfaction and enjoyment in learning about computers and the software that they run. I can easily lose track of time when learning a new piece of software, fixing a computer problem, or finding a way to make a computer do what I want. I thoroughly enjoy experimenting with all the options in a piece of software to see what they do. In the process of doing these things, I have become proficient in many computer applications.

The natural consequence is that I then find myself answering questions in our office about how to do something or how to solve a computer problem, which puts me in the role of "computer teacher" to my coworkers. This is a role that I enjoy, and will drop anything at any time to do. However, at times I get frustrated because I feel like I have the answer in my head, but struggle to effectively transfer it to someone else.

To put it simply, my goal in seeking this M. Ed. degree is to become efficient and effective at teaching others to use computers. For many people, using a computer comes quite easily and naturally. For others, it can be quite frustrating, challenging and discouraging. When I find myself helping finding someone who is frustrated with their computer, I want to find the best way to help them.

Obviously it does no good for me to take over the keyboard or mouse and solve the problem. Just because I can do it in a few minutes or even seconds does very little good. It is much better to walk them through the process, but sometimes that is not as easy as it sounds. If the problem is complicated, I get frustrated when I try to dissect the process I go through to solve it. I often I struggle to explain things that I can easily do.

For example, many software applications have seemingly endless menus, submenus, dialogue boxes, setup choices, etc. For me, it is often a process of trial and error that solves the problem. How do I explain why I guess the way that I do? Although it looks and feels like I am just "clicking around", I am able to find success when someone else has been "clicking around" and only finds frustration. Or why am I able to find the answer in a printed or online help manual when someone else has been looking unsuccessfully in the same manual for the same answer for much longer.

Another thing that I have found interesting is that many of the people who are proficient with computers have little formal training. Most often, they pick up a book here, a short class there, and do lots of experimenting and learning on their own. I am interested in finding out why this comes so naturally for some people and not for others.

And then there is the whole issue of how kids are able to learn computers so easily. Is it simply because they are younger and in a learning stage in their life? Or is it because they are comfortable around computers, and don't have any fear or anxiety about pushing a key even if they don't know what will happen when they do?

As I mentioned earlier, I have had no education in "education", but find it quite fascinating and look forward learning more through this M.Ed. program. I also am looking forward to learning more about computers and their applications. Up until this point, I have acquired my computer knowledge informally, but am very anxious to get into a more formal setting where the learning is structured and planned.

I want to learn more of the foundational, behind the scenes information. I am always interested in how things work and why they do what they do. In addition, I am very anxious to learn the in-depth and technical aspects. I find it a personal challenge when I come up against something that I don't understand or can't explain. There are many times when either I am unable to make something work, or I make it work, but don't know how or why. I can only say, "I don't know". While there will always be those situations when working with computers, I would like to eliminate as many of those as I can.

With the increased use of computers in jobs, learning and personal life, increasing numbers of people will be using computers. For some people, this will be a welcome challenge, but for those that struggle, my goal is to be able to make learning the computer as efficient as possible, so that productivity occurs in as short a time as possible.

-- Anonymous, January 07, 1999