Stephanie Sprauer

Final Course Reflection

sprauers — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 06:54:46 +0000

I whole-heatedly believe this course fully embraces all of the principles of feminist pedagogy. We learned several technology skills in a very personal way that drew all of our attention to the importance the mastery of various skills had in our own life. I have never had confidence in technology but now I have some and that feels better than I can explain. I’m no longer scared to sit down and try something new because of the course requirements of this class. The skill set I walk away with is only a portion of the foundation that is in constant progress.

While help was always accessible, taking this course online really forces the student to be a pro-active problem solver. We couldn’t have someone show us how to do something. We had to read for ourselves and then go navigate in the dark. This was probably my biggest struggle with the class but at the same time, provided the most growth. I like to watch a process and then repeat on my own with assistance when necessary. Without a doubt I will take this skill onto other classes and the workplace.

Skills I’ve learned:

How to Create a WordPress Account
How to upload, edit, organize, style my personal WordPress site
How to embed links
How to upload images, visuals, charts

I have also expanded my horizons as far as what women in technology are presently doing. My teach project topic was incredible. The links at the beginning of each week for TED talks on the current topic were phenomenal.

Going forward I will not only apply the skills I’ve gained but most importantly the confidence I now have. I feel that I have met the course objectives (maybe not the extent of some others who were more technologically advanced) to my own extent. I know there are so many other great tools to be used and skills to be learned.

Here is my subscription to TEDWomen for extra credit:

Teach – Amortization Schedules

sprauers — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 15:48:15 +0000

I have decided to teach how to set up and use Amortization Schedules for loan repayment. I have found the excel spreadsheets that I am going to use and to teach the project I would like to set up a video tutorial, walking students through the steps of setting up the schedule, how to modify the calculations, and how to save to their computer for future use. The video tutorials were very useful for me in my statistics class because I am a visual learner and I was able to pause and resume play when I wanted to stop and try certain steps along the way.

There are many amortization schedules available online but not many that allow the user to alter the payments from month to month. amortizationer.com has several templates, two of which I’ll be using for this project. I learned about amortization schedules at work (calculating settlement agreements for clients that include loan repayment or financial reimbursement) and these are the most helpful templates I have found. Its important to be able to set your own payment schedule because that is how one can truly see the benefit of paying more early to save on interest.

Financial Analysis

sprauers — Mon, 28 May 2012 15:33:07 +0000

Tools that were helpful with this project were excel. This was the quickest way for me to readjust my budget to see what I could afford and what is feasible for hourly rates to help make my business successful.

I went on the search for a budget template for in home care agencies and found no luck. I had to use what previous knowledge I had working as a caregiver and internally for a healthcare company to set rates and estimate my expenses.

One piece of technology that I will actually use with this business, but I didn’t in the project, is an amortization schedule. This calculates how quickly I can pay back a loan, making the same payment or making payments in varied amounts. I know I will have to take out a loan to start up my company so this could help determine how quickly I would be out the ‘red’ and profiting. There are several user friendly amortization templates online that are free to download and use in excel.

For the teach project I don’t have any great ideas yet. I could possibly walk people through creating their own amortization schedules for home loans, vehicles and anything else they want to finance. The amortization schedule also points out how much will be paid in interest. This can be very empowering for the consumer if they can do the calculations that maybe before they left someone else to do.

Week 7 Already ?!

sprauers — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:44:13 +0000

I’m finding the more work I put into this site the more I find I want to change, add, or perfect. Uploading images was not difficult but embedding the link is what I am having trouble with. I have a few great audio and sound clips I would like to add in as well as a link to Suzanne’s laundry list of awards but I don’t want to turn my site in with long web addresses in the pages.

Note to Professor Pam – being able to view other’s projects was a big help in editing my own. Seeing the connections other students made really got me thinking in how I could improve my own site.

I am stoked for the Financial Analysis project! I know exactly what I am going to do; Someday I would love to start my own private geriatric care manager/ aging consulting business. I had the idea of starting a small portion of that this summer and have started in on a business plan. Working the financial aspect of this will show me what is feasible for start-up and what more I will need to be successful in other areas down the road. I am so excited that this can apply to my life in a very real way.

Culture Site Struggles

sprauers — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:33:16 +0000

Something I am struggling with is finding in depth specific information on Suzanne Cory’s contributions in the genetics world. She has been a part of some miraculous research teams but much of what I’m finding is what the team has accomplished as a whole not just Suzanne’s contributions. Suzanne is a highly decorated scientists but every association she is a part of gives a laundry list of involvement and accomplishments but not much into detail.

With that said, I feel the direction of my paper is headed more towards the obstacles Suzanne overcame to get into Cambridge in the 60′s, to be the first women to be elected to head up the Austrailian Acadamy of Science, lobbying for increased funding from the the Australian Government for science research, starting her own elite secondary school, etc.

So while Suzanne has been on the forefront of cancer research and cell death theories, I find that her position as a female, raised in the fifties/sixties and doing what she has done, has brought forth more attention and more reaction from her Australian society and the science community than anything else.

I have found some great videos to post along with my paper, that truly show Suzanne’s humble enthusiasm for mentoring young people especially young girls. She has two daughters of her own and talks of her experiences as a professional and mother. A simple woman with wisely chosen words, it seems that everyone listens when Suzanne speaks up.

I’m not happy with my paper yet but will post it soon.

Week 4

sprauers — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:28:44 +0000

Well I was surprised to see that we can now text librarians; thats news to me. I still have a couple of text messages out and I will see how long it will take them to reply. My questions were – What would be a good source to use for Australian Scientist Suzanne Cory as fas as her contributions as a woman? Also, I am looking for significance as this is for a women and technology class.

I found a source for Australian Scientists in and Australian Encyclopedia. I plan to use obtain my sources through most of what our OSU library has to offer. It has proved to be excellent for all of my past papers. I was also looking at what the children of her school she created have done. What influence has Suzanne Cory had on the youngsters, especially young girls? – Many avenues to narrow down for my paper.

Week 3

sprauers — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:56:39 +0000

This week went well. I can honestly say that the material and discussions in this classes are stretching my own understanding of gender mainstreaming. Opinions, traditions, and pre-conceived stereotypes aside, there is no doubt technology, medicine, and our societies will be a better place when women are able to become more involved.

Australian scientist, Suzanne Cory will be the focus of my Culture Site Project. Suzanne is a professor, a leading scientist in cancer researcher, a wife, and the new headmaster of her own selective, co-ed high-school. She is currently serving a five year term as the President of the Australian Academy of Science – the first women to do so. Dr. Cory is a women of great influence and very revolutionary in her research about cancer cells. Dr. Suzanne Cory is a role model for all women, science-ey or not. I am more than confident that there will be plenty of information available about Dr. Cory as she is and has been in the the prime of her career for the last 25 years!

http://www.suzannecoryhs.vic.edu.au/suzanne-cory.html

What beautiful weather this weekend, hope all got to enjoy!!

Its going to be a great week,

Stephanie

Week 2

sprauers — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:24:04 +0000

I have created a skeleton for my blog and I look forward to filling in the created categories and pages with information and links as we go along. My frustration is that the categories I have created aren’t showing up on my page so I will need to figure that out. Also, I am using Google Chrome as my web-browser and can’t seem to get hyperlinks to work correctly. I have followed the tutorial on the class site and I think I may have to use a different web-browser? I need to show the link as the name of the article not the site address.

This class is almost overwhelming in the amount of information to be gleamed from it. I am trying to soak up as much as possible because I know skills that I learn here will be with me for the rest of my life.

My goal for this next week is to seriously make some progress in brainstorming for my projects. I’m especially looking forward to the teach project as I have several candidates that would benefit from learning new skills in technology.

This morning I awoke to rain! The weekend was absolutely gorgeous and I’m very anxious for summer!

Best,

Stephanie

Easy Peasy

sprauers — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 02:05:00 +0000

Well this blog was delightfully simple to set-up. What a great resource for us to have and I guess for anyone to have. I’m really glad I was able to view other student’s blog prior to creating my own and I’ll enjoying viewing other’s blogs as we go along. This is my first blog and I look forward to learning yet another form of expression through this blog. While I have read/listened to all the materials thus far, I am a bit nervous that I will miss something but I’m sure we’ll be into the swing of things before we know it.

Happy Easter,

Stephanie