MOOC’s: Open Learning

November 18, 2013 - colinashby 1 Comment

Open Learning

“You blew 150k on an education you could have gotten in $1.50 in late fees from the library.”

-from Good Will Hunting (1997)

Scribbles in a library study room

I’m a believer in self-taught education. I like being around people who are considered autodidacts (people who self-teach themselves). There is something great about watching a person demonstrate or talk about something they care about. They talk with so much passion and knowledge yet they never went the traditional classroom route to learn it. I’m sure most people have come across at least a few people like this (have you seen the vast amount of 12-year-olds teaching things on YouTube?)

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have given people, regardless of location or experience, the opportunity to learn. Moocs have been covered a lot lately in the news. Embracing the thought of people wanting to learn outside the traditional classroom, I put compiled a list of some great sources to find free courses available to people (offered even from high-end universities).

UCLA

UCLA offers many open and free extension courses on writing. Some of the topics include: Working on a Personal Brand, Screenwriting, Writing a 1-Hour Drama Pilot. There is basically a course for almost anything a person can think of. You may notice there are courses that cost money, but plenty that are available for free.

Stanford

Stanford University has a program called S.E.E. (Stanford Engineering Everywhere) that offers ten open courses for anyone to take. The courses use the same lecture videos and assignments that regular Stanford students use (and the courses are free!). Some of the courses they have include Artificial Intelligence and Introduction to Computer Science.

Carnegie Mellon

Carnegie Mellon University has a program called the Open Learning Initiative. The program is just that, open learning available to anyone. They have courses on biology, math, psychology, and more. There motto is “No instructors, no credit, no charge.”

iTunesU Store

iTunes offers the free app that can let a person took for and take free courses with no additional materials like textbooks needed.

Udemy

Udemy is the ultimate in free online learning. Their goal is to “democratize education by enabling anyone to learn from the worlds experts.” The website allows anyone to take or teach courses.

The point of this post is that students often feel restricted by many things. They feel trapped by their major, unable to take interesting free electives. They think that their degree may limit them, and so on. This does not have to be the case. Working towards your college degree is worth it. In my experience, through taking some free open online courses, I was able to build upon what I was learning in the classroom. I was able to explore more into my major than ever before. Through the exercises and assignments, I was able to refine my thinking about how to use my degree to my best advantage.

So next time that winter/spring/summer break rolls around, consider using the resources above to take some free courses.

MAIP Summer 2014

November 11, 2013 - colinashby Leave a comment

In this blog I frequently talk about how to utilize a college degree to the max. Speak with professors, attend events related your major, get experience in your major, and so forth. One of the great ways to expand upon what you learn in the classroom is through internships. Internships let you test the waters for a certain career sector and let you gain real-world experience. When I heard about the MAIP summer 2014 program and how they give students the opportunity to work at real advertising agencies, I knew I had to apply.

MAIP stands for Multicultural Advertising Intern Program. I had send a video component along with my application. After 6 hours of restless planning and filming I was finally able to come to a finished product. The video footage originally ran 12 minutes long but I was able to successfully cut it down to the stated three minutes.

Here is the video of me addressing MAIP, telling them how I am unique and what makes me a good fit for the program.

Lost in Translation: Movie Lessons

October 28, 2013 - colinashby 2 Comments

Lost in Translation is one of my favorite movies of all time. Sofia Coppola is one of my favorite directors of all time. In honor of the film’s recent 10 year anniversary, I decided to do a post on it and it’s relatable themes to college.

Sweaty hands, ketchup stained clothes, and a mind full of thoughts. This runs through a lot of college students’ minds as they have to keep deciding what to do. Things have to be decided on. Homework has to be done. Job/Internship applications have to be filled out. All of this combined is enough to overwhelm anyone.

So here comes the 2003 Sophia Coppola film Lost in Translation. It is a film about an American actor Bob Harris (Bill Murray) who goes to Japan to film a whiskey advertisement. While in Japan, he feels disillusioned and out of place due to not understanding the language. He has problems in his 25 year marriage and is going through a mid-life crisis when he meets a young college graduate named Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson). The film explores a number of themes that can be relatable to many undergraduates.

Feeling of Being Lost, Not Knowing What to Do

Many undergraduates are lost in the academia and events of college. They don’t know where to go. They have a series of commands endlessly told to them: focus on school, get an internship, apply to jobs, form good relationships with professors, eat healthy, manage your money. It can all be a little (or a lot) overwhelming. This is how Bob and Charlotte feel while in Japan. They are put in a sea of things and are unable to make sense of it. Bob and Charlotte are unsure of the things going on in their lives and what to do about it.

Looking to be Found

Everyone wants to find their place in the world. They want to find their niche in society. Having to decide on a college major, what things to join, what jobs/internships to apply to can be daunting. Bob and Charlotte both feel the same way. Charlotte is unsure of what jobs she should take since she is now out of college. Bob is unsure of his next action/decision in life. Through several events the two characters are finally able to connect and understand each other. To translate into how this connects to college: there is no one action that will get you to where you want to be. It is completely normal to have to go through several events/jobs/clubs to find out what you really want.

All in all, Lost in Translation lets a person see that others feel overwhelmed and out of place too. Although if a person keeps at something (ex: working towards a college degree) it will pay off in some way. They will have a better understanding of themselves because of their past experiences.

Movie Review by famed movie critic Robert Ebert.

Mass Communication Week at Texas State (Storify)

October 22, 2013 - colinashby Leave a comment

Mass Communication week started today. The five day event focuses on connecting Texas State students to mass comm professionals. A series of events with different speakers from different media disciplines. Through the events the professionals are able to talk about the trends and issues concerning today’s media. Advice and insight is given to students nearing the entry into this evolving and competitive world.

Tumblr Comes to Texas State

mass comm week: day one

Events were held in Old Main — Photo Credit: Colin Ashby

Things To Take From Woman’s “I Quit” YouTube Video

October 9, 2013 - colinashby 1 Comment

It’s 4:30 a.m. While most are soundly asleep, Marina Shifrin is at work. She works at a Next Media Animation as a video producer. She hates her job. She has had to sacrifice her family, relationships, and free time in order to get work assignments done. Her boss was focused on quantity and wanted as many videos with as many views as possible.

The day finally comes when she doesn’t want to do the job anymore. She makes a video, puts it on YouTube, and it goes viral just days after. Less than five days after the video, titled “An Interpretive Dance For My Boss Set To Kanye West’s Gone” is posted, she appears on The Queen Latifah Show. Towards the end of the video, Queen Latifah speaks up and offers her a job. “With your experience, I could create a position,” Latifah said. The job she creates for Shifrin is a digital content producer position. Shifrin is meeting with the shows representatives and still considering the option.

This story brings about something very familiar to what I witness a lot while in college. These people are ones that are constantly trying to choose your path for you. They tell you to major in this. They tell you to not major in that. They tell you to join this, do that, take up this, and so forth. It can cause a person’s brain to go into overload. What “correct” thing should the person do?

Navigating college is tricky path. You have to focus on balancing schoolwork, working a job, paying bills, and at the same time trying to gain experience in their field. The important thing to remember is that you can build your own way of life. You have the power. It’s time to experiment and college especially, is a great place to do this. There are so many resources available to students. There are a variety of majors in college to choose from. Find a niche. Utilize all the things available to you. Take advantage of them. You shouldn’t let others decide what you will do. You are in control of your own self. Go out and make your highest goals come true.

“Sometimes I think that you need to forcefully close one door in order for another one to open a little easier,” Marina Shifrin [to Queen Latifah].

What I found while studying in the library
Photo Credit: Colin Ashby

App Idea for Job-Hunting Process

October 6, 2013 - colinashby 3 Comments

I imagined a mobile app that would ease the job-hunting process for student/rising-professionals. This app would help job candidates in keeping their materials organized. It would feature options available to use all during the job search process, from finding out about the opportunity all the way to helping with the job interview

Things the app will feature:

Applications/Materials Tab:

This tab will show the job candidate all current, open, unfinished applications that he/she has. The materials tab will detail what each position opening is requiring. A “needed materials” tab will send reminders to the person’s phone telling them what professional clothing options they still need to obtain.

Question of the Day:

This section will make sure the job candidate stays on top of all that goes on with the company they are applying too. The Question of the Day will ask questions like “What is the purpose of the company?” “What clients do they work with?” “What type of stuff does the company cover?” The Question of the Day will serve as a sort of quiz for the job candidate to make sure he/she is familiar with the company before the interview.

Reminders

The app will send out email and text message reminders telling the job candidate when they need to pick up a recommendation letter by (from a professor, work supervisor, etc).

Social Media

In order to stay in tip top shape and have a good online presence, the app will tell the job candidates what social networks he/she is lacking and need to sign up for.

Since this post deals with preparing for the job hunt, read on with this USA Today College article about more ways to prepare for the big interview.

A Real-Life Intern’s View of The Internship Movie

September 22, 2013 - colinashby 1 Comment

The Internship came out back in June while I was working two summer internships. The movie is about two guys who lose their sales jobs mid-career and decide to take an internship at the well-known company Google. The movie has been getting a lot of praise from real-life fellow interns. As a former intern at Hays County Food Bank the movie was surprisingly accurate about the world of interning.

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, the lead characters of the movie, come to the internship with no up to date job skills. Looking back at their years as salesman they think they will excel at the internship. When they arrive at the Google Headquarters and see the other interns, they realize something. They have no technology experience or updated technical job skills.

Being an intern without much real world work experience, I could understand the characters feelings of being lost in a competitive work world. I am four weeks into my internship here at the food bank and it has been great. I have done everything from helping hand out food at public distributions to dressing up as a carrot and floating the river to promote National Fresh Fruits and Vegetables month.

The theme throughout the movie The Internship is that personality and perseverance go a long way in one’s career. What the two lead characters lack in job skills, they make up with determination.

The diverse characters throughout the movie mirror the diverse group of people I meet every day through the food bank. Everyone here at the food bank has been friendly and helpful along the way of my internship. I look forward to the many duties I take on as an intern at Hays County Food Bank. This summer at the food bank is going to be great.

To learn more about the Hays County Food Bank, what the food bank does, and so forth, please visit their website.

Review of Ken Ilguna’s Walden on Wheels: From Debt to Freedom

September 14, 2013 - colinashby 1 Comment

Every so often, one can see the news articles talking about student debt. It is a hot topic right now. The average student debt continues to rise in America. People try to concoct a range of different ways in order to minimize it. One guy, Ken Ilgunas, took it to the extreme: he lived in his van to stay debt free.

Ken Ilguna’s book, Walden on Wheels: On the Open Road from Debt to Freedom, details his experiences in tackling his $32,000 in debt, vowing to take out student loans again, and eventually living in a 1994 Ford E-150 Econoline. The book is divided into three parts: Debtor, Living a free life in spite of debt, and the eventual van dwelling part three.

The book starts off with Ilguna graduating from college, no job offers, and 32,000 in debt. He explores what his college degree (in english) is really worth and what it could do for him. No job leads on the horizon, he travels up to Coldfoot, Alaska to work a $9 dollar/hour job as a cook at a truck stop (Coldfoot has the northern most truck stop in the U.S.). The book chronicles the two and a half years after graduation of him working one low paying job to the next. Despite the low pay, through his extreme frugal living he is able to pay off the $32,000 in just two and a half years (hence the title: Walden on Wheels). After paying off the debt, he buys a van off craigslist and lives in it while going to graduate school.

There is something special about this book. It’s a coming-of-age memoir that is more than just chronicling the author’s personal self. In the book, the Ilguna raises questions about his education. Was his degree worth it? Should he have majored in something more “marketable”? He learns by the end of the book that his broad liberal studies degrees (BA in English, MA Liberal Studies) allowed him to dabble and learn in everything. From his frugal living and newfound master’s degree he sees that he is still a student, a lifelong learner. He breaks from the traditional masses view of a college degree and life. College allows him to form his own way of thinking that lead him to have some amazing life experiences.

So yes, even a liberal arts degree has some value. :

To learn more about Ken Ilguna’s book, check it out on Amazon.

Movie “Glory Daze” Give Insight Into Post-Graduation Life

September 9, 2013 - colinashby Leave a comment

GloryDaze[1] — Photo Courtesy of imdb.com

With the Netflix site up and a pile of not-so-healthy food in hand, I started to watch Glory Daze. The interesting thing to notice about the film is that it was released at a time when most of the main cast was not all that famous. Glory Daze stars Ben Affleck, Sam Rockwell, Matt Damon, Matthew McConaughey, Leah Remini, and Brendan Fraser all before they hit big.

When most see Glory Daze they see it as just another low-budget indie film without much to offer. That could be the case, but for most (yes, even people outside the 18-34 demographic) will be able to see something more from the movie.

The movie follow five friends who live in a house they call “El Rancho.” They are all going to college at University of California-Santa Cruz. Jack (Ben Affleck) deals with is commanding parents. Dennis (French Stewart) contemplates going to graduate school or not. Rob (Sam Rockwell) wonders if he should move to Los Angeles with his girlfriend or not.

After finishing the movie it really struck a chord with me. A lot of the issues dealt with in the movie are ones college students deal with all the time. Here are the four things I noticed that were addressed in Glory Daze:

Not being sure what you want to do in life

Jack (Ben Affleck) struggles with this throughout the entire movie. He is nearing his college graduation and he is not sure of what to do. In fact he has no idea what to do. Like many college students in real life, his parents start pressuring him. “You need to get a job Jack.” “You graduated, what are your plans now?” Jack doesn’t know how to answer these questions. He tries to dodge his parent’s persistence. He does not want to work at some corporate 9 to 5 job. He does not like doing mindless work for someone else’s dream. He wants to follow his dream. He is an artist. He is not sure of how to reach his dream.

Graduate School?

Dennis (French Stewart) deals with the decision of going to graduate school or working as an assistant at the university. Many graduating college seniors contemplate this. Should I go to graduate school or not? Not sure of if they will get a job after graduation, many students apply for graduate school. They believe that extra degree will make them “more competitive” in the workforce. Being more close to the plot of the movie, some students know they want to go to graduate school but are not sure if they should postpone it or not. Should they work for a few years after graduation or go straight to graduate school? Dennis faces this proposition in the movie when one of his professors ask him to stay on as his assistant.

Relocating

Moving to a new city is a tricky proposition. College students think about the prospect of a new city as they get closer to graduation. Rob (Sam Rockwell) faces this when his question when his longtime girlfriend asks him to move to Los Angeles with her. Graduating college students often wonder if moving to a new city will help them out in life. Does the new city have good job opportunities? Do I need to move there for my career? Should I move even though I have a lump of student loans on me? Questions and anxiety swirl through students minds when they wonder what they should do. The same questions and anxiety happen to Dennis in the movie.

Wondering how all these topics are answered? Go grab some popcorn and maybe a few friends and watch Glory Daze. It is currently on Netflix Instant.

New York Times Movie Review of Glory Daze.

Lessons Learned from NBC Show Parks & Recreation

September 1, 2013 - colinashby Leave a comment

Parks and Recreation: Thursdays on NBC Photo Courtesy of buzzsugar.com — Parks and Recreation: Thursdays on NBC
Photo Courtesy of buzzsugar.com

Workplace comedies are pretty big right now. People love seeing a (mostly) real look into the lives of people that do typical common jobs. NBC’s Parks and Recreation is a workplace comedy dealing with the daily tasks and adventures of a group of people who work in a small town parks and recreation department.

Watching Parks and Recreation does not stop at just giving audiences a laugh, however. It provides some lessons that job seekers and people focused on advancing their career can notice. Here are some of the lessons learned from Parks and Recreation:

Being an Intern has its perks

The idea of interns just doing busy work and taking coffee orders is a blown away with the character of April Ludgate. At the beginning of the show April starts out as an intern for the Parks and Recreation Department. Her tasks are anything but little: assisting with campaigns, generating support for a park project, and speaking at public forums. April is constantly able to network with top city officials throughout the show.

Be Yourself

April Ludgate, the intern, does not try to be someone she is not. She maintains her sarcastic deadpan personality. In a weird way this actually gets her noticed. City officials, residents of Pawnee, and her co-workers are all curious about her.

Several career sites and counseling offices tell you what to do and not to do in an interview. They say the behavior a person needs to have while on the job. They mention what to wear on the job or to an interview. With all these voices, it can be easy for a person to lose themselves. Do not let that happen. Do not lose your personality and distinction during an interview/ at a job. Still have professional etiquette of course! Just do not forget to show your personality to an employer. After all, this is what makes you unique.

Take Charge. Don’t be afraid to speak new ideas

Main character Leslie Knope is deeply committed to making her hometown of Pawnee the best that it can be. She is not afraid to let some of her weird and off the wall traits show. She constantly talks about all the ideas she has to make Pawnee a great town. She wants to build a park, increase literacy, promote healthy choices, and help small businesses. Leslie has planned out steps to make all of her ideas a reality.

College students can particularly learn something important from the Leslie Knope character: she doesn’t wait to be told, she just does. Leslie is not stuck in the cycle of having someone tell her what task to do. She takes on workloads of her own. She creates things without being asked.

Go to Entertainment Weekly’s website so you can vote Parks and Recreation for an EWwy Award (the punctuation is correct)