MrL8Nite goes back to school

I'd  rather be flying my stunt kites!  Imagine a nice sunny day, a 15-20 mph wind, and being slowly dragged down the beach.

That's a picture of me flying my kites in July of 2006 at Myrtle Beach, SC.  In 2007 I had to go to Pepperdine's TechCamp and missed the chance to fly my kites (grrr) at my family's annual beach reunion. But I've already checked the schedule and it looks like the usual reunion week in July 2008 is clear of any school commitments, so I'll update the photos in 2008!

Yeah, you read that right. MrL8Nite is going back to school to get his doctorate. Decided over a year ago to finally get the "Dr." in front of my name. It's been a dream for a while...might as well get it while I'm young (ha)! The trick was to find a reputable school, a degree in Education, and a program that could handle my travel schedule. I ended up in Pepperdine's On-Campus/On-Line program that started July 2007. I'll spend about four 12-hour days in classroom-based lecture twice a semester and work the balance of the time reading books, writing reports, and interacting on-line. So far...it works. But I think this program is going to be a bit tougher than my Masters -- more hours, more books, more courses, over less months, with a dissertation and comps.

Anyways, that's what this site is all about...me and my journey through my doctoral program. The site was started as an assignment for the first Human-Computer Interface course on the Freewebs.com site, but will probably migrate with me to other "locations" as I'll want this site to be more feature-rich and more complex than I think Freewebs can probably handle. We'll see. In the meantime, check out the links (on the left or at the bottom) for my current courses, my blog, pics, and links to assorted wiki sites.

Summer '07

Quick update for 2008: Yes, I made it to my family reunion in July of 2008 and managed to get some kite flying in with my nephew. Nice heavy winds made for some great stunts early in the week. Lighter winds allow me to let my "younger" relatives try their hand at flying a number of my stunt kites...it's an annual tradition. 

I was also involved a little with Pepperdine responsibilities. I had some Stats homework to do and I ended up helping out Cadre 14 with their first Second Life experience during their Tech Camp. But it was all remote...no traveling to the west coast this July.  It was nice to be back on the beach again with my family for a whole week! --cj

August 2009: Courses are done! I just got my grades for my last semester of classes. Whew! I have rather high academic standards, so it was a real crunch at the end of this program to make sure I kept my grades up where I wanted them. While I *did* make it to my annual family reunion, I spent many hours hiding in one of the beach house rooms working on papers for three courses. Still, I had time to enjoy with family...picnics, pig-picking, golf tournament, and of course some kite flying.

So, I have August off and then will return in Sepetember for the Comprehensive (Comps) course in the Fall. This is a "pass-fail" class that has me pull together all of my learnings over the last two years into a cohesive paper that demonstrates that I have a mastery (or at least a solid grasp) of the key topics and issues. Then just after Thanksgiving I'll "defend" the paper to panel of my professors. If Comps goes well, by next summer I hope to be well into writing my dissertation...and flying my kites.

--cj

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