Frenzied Fall!

I don't know why it is but fall always seems so frenzied. Part may be that many students in Callen's class have birthdays - so lots of fun parties to attend! We've been to 2 already in the past month and have 2 this weekend. Plus, my work always seems busier in the fall. I'm still not sure why this always seems to be the case.

I know this fall is bad because I'm trying to juggle too many things at work. I have 3 grants right now that are consuming lots of my time. One is just getting up and started so way too many details to handle right now! In addition to these, there is my class I'm teaching and assignments to grade; there's also other papers I'm working on with other colleagues, conferences to prepare presentations for and attend, and lots of other things.

I woke up at 3:30 this morning and was awake till 5. I should have just gotten up and done some work rather than just thinking about what I needed to do today.

Let's hope that things begin to calm down sometime soon!

Cyber Seniors and Health

As some of you know, I have an NIA grant to go into assisted living communities (ALFs) to train older adults to use computers and the Internet and to assess the impact on their quality of life over time. We finished 6 weeks of training in our first assisted living community yesterday afternoon. The 6 weeks flew by so fast! We learned a huge amount about best practices in training in ALFs. The participants were phenomenal! I hope the skills we helped them acquire will definitely positively impact their quality of life!



We did a debriefing with them at the end of class yesterday to find out their thoughts on ways to enhance the training, how it had impacted them thus far, etc. One person said: "You've made us feel like we're part of the world again." Another noted that "We'd opened up the world for them." They are an amazing group!



The UAB Media Relations rep had issued a local press release to see if any local TV stations wanted to come out to talk to us. I was asked to be on the local Fox news at noon yesterday to talk about the study. I haven't been able to find any online link to the interview but below is one that the local ABC station did. Watch the video if you get a chance. I'm also scheduled to be on Fox' Good Day Alabama Monday morning.



Cyber Seniors: How the Internet Can Affect Health

State of the Blogosphere

I came across this report today as I was working on a book chapter (that is due in 2 days!). Interesting to see information on numbers, demographics, etc. of bloggers and blogging in general.

Updating the Blog

Life has been way too busy the past month. I can't believe it has been almost a month since I last did a blog post! Here's a brief recap of life over the past month.

• We spent a good portion of the summer thinking Bo would get put on unpaid leave, along with 1000+ Jefferson County employees. Luckily he didn't but we certainly feel bad for the others who did get put on leave. We hope Jefferson County will bring them back ASAP now that the politicians have passed a new occupational tax.
• We did a family trip to Atlanta. We went to the Georgia Aquarium. It was nice but I think the Baltimore and Chattanooga ones are better. As we were getting out of the car at Ikea, Callen smashed a finger in the door! Not a fun time! Nothing broken but lots of tears. Sunday we went to Stone Mtn and did a few things there. Pretty state park.
• We went to a birthday party for a friend of Callen's. His mother is so creative! I wish I had a third of the creativity genes that she does! Yes, I'm talking about you Renee : ).
• My NSF grant I submitted in January got funded! Our media office did a press release on Wed. of this week and it has been picked up by various media outlets around the country. The project involves helping develop STEM curriculum using XO laptops, and working with teachers and students to enhance integration of the XOs and the new curriculum modules.
• We started training our first older adults in our first assisted living facility to use computers and the Internet (for my NIA grant). They're doing so great! The class is smaller than we'd hoped but this is our pilot facility and we're learning a lot that will enhance the future trainings. My graduate research assistants are doing a great job with the training!
• The cleaning of the data from my other NSF grant is almost complete. We should be able to start crunching some numbers soon to indicate how students' technology usage, attitudes towards technology, educational aspirations, etc. changed with the introduction of the XO laptops in Birmingham City schools.
• I went to San Francisco a couple of weeks ago for our national conference. It was fun to see old friends and to meet some new ones. The presentations I was involved with went well. One was even written up in a San Fran. blog. I flew home on a 7:30 AM flight so that I could attend the open house at Callen's school. It made for a long, long day but I'm glad I could get back in time for it!
• Our classes started this week (where did the summer go????). I'm teaching on Tues/Thurs at 8 AM (ouch!) but better than a MWF in the afternoon (which was the other option). It looks like a pretty good group of students or at least the best I can tell after 2 classes : ).

I'm sure I've left lots out of what we did over the past month, but this will have to suffice for now : ). I hope everyone had a good summer!

My New NSF Grant - Integrating Computing Across the Curriculum (ICAC) Using XO Laptops

I received notice last week that the NSF grant I submitted in January was funded. The goal of this grant is to enhance STEM education in Birmingham City schools using XO laptops. The study builds off my current NSF grant investigating the educational, career, and social impacts of the XO laptops in Birmingham City schools.

Here's a link to the abstract of the new grant: ICAC

Eating Out and Saving Money

As many of you know, Bo's work situation (and all the employees of Jefferson County for that matter) is very precarious at this time. We've been trying to eat out less frequently and when we do eat out we try to do it less expensively.

There are good 'buy one get one free' coupons in the paper/mail every so often for Ruby Tuesdays. And, we've noticed places like Logan's and Applebees have started doing 2 meals for a certain price (usually smaller portions but still plenty for dinner).

Last night we went to Johnny Carino's. They have these family dinners that you can get where they bring out a big bowl of a selected item. This will easily feed 3-4 people. You also get salads with it. We noticed last night that on Monday nights, these family dinners are HALF PRICE! This is a great deal. A family of 3-4 could eat for under $20 (unless you buy expensive beverages, appetizers, etc.).

Just wanted to pass along this info!

Downturn and Dating

I was interviewed last week for a story on how the economic downturn may be impacting dating. As usual, only a few seconds of me show, but much of what is said is from other material I noted during the interview.

Here's the clip: Downturn Dating