Rated K 

I consider myself to be computer literate. Thanks to my master’s program, I am fluent in Microsoft Office for Mac: Word, PowerPoint, and even Excel. I became proficient in managing virtual classrooms and two computer-based educational platforms, Blackboard and D2L. Although it seemed impossible, I learned how to do small group work and collaborate with classmates who lived hundreds of miles away. I became skilled in starting and editing Wikis as well as putting a document into PDF and getting it out again. I wasn’t exactly proficient in using Adobe Presenter, an app that lets someone create a virtual lecture, but I figured it out without pulling out my hair. To access some of the course materials that were only available on Windows, I downloaded a program that allowed me to switch from the Mac OS to Windows Seven. Scary stuff! I still feel a pit in my stomach whenever I hear the sound of Windows booting on my iMac.

When I started my ill-fated PhD program, I had not idea how my computer skills would be challenged. I took three statistics courses and each instructor had a different favorite program. I learned about SAS, SPSS, and R. If those acronyms mean nothing to you, consider yourself lucky! I also worked with NVivo, a program used by qualitative researchers to organize data gleaned from words or written work. In one course, however, I got an introduction to WordPress. The blog was clean and easy to navigate. So of course it would be easy peasy to put up my own blog.

I was wrong, so very wrong. I’ve learned that it’s much harder to blog than I originally thought. I thought it was nothing but writing great stuff, finding terrific pictures, and maybe put in a poll or two. So far, WordPress has been tricky and hard to master. Then I remembered how difficult it was to get through some of my prior experiences with computers. I remember the endless hours spent trying to use R or SPSS even though neither one would be relevant to my course of study. I had more of a stake in mastering NVivo because I was planning to use it extensively in a dissertation that I later knew would never be written.

Okay. So WordPress is sometimes a bit wonky—and sadly, my inexperience with this site has been difficult for many people to read. I apologize for that. It will get easier the more comfortable I get. I also learned from the Happiness Engineers that front page pictures in this theme turned to sepia with the movement with the mouse! Who knew? The bottom line is, I didn’t realize WordPress would have a steep learning curve but it is well worth the hassles I’ve had. Please let me know if you have additional feedback and thank you for reading!