It's Official! I am an Author!

As some of you know, I took the 2010-2011 academic year off at Passaic to work on some projects. One of these projects was writing a textbook, and it was awesome to see it has been published and is on Amazon's Web site.

It really has been a dream of mine to actually author a textbook, and Pearson gave me a chance to do this with a small textbook in their Your Office series. The series editor, Amy Kinser, had a vision for how she felt the books should be, and it sounded a lot like the way I try to teach application software. Instead of "click click click", I try to talk about how certain features may be useful in a business environment.

Visit my book on Amazon!

Interestingly enough, the writing wasn't difficult for me. The most tedious part ended up being creating good screen shots, getting them labeled, getting permissions, and so on.

The book definitely will not make me rich - as it is designed to be packaged with the Your Office: Microsoft Office 2010, Volume 1 textbook, I was paid a flat fee rather than a commission. However, it was an exciting start to an authoring career. I hope to contribute more to other texts in the future, and having gone through the process, I know I can do it.

Book Update and Soliciting Help

One of the portions of my book involves me demonstrating a fake business on Facebook, and showing how you can set up a Facebook Page for a business. I set up a fake spa on Facebook, and in order to create a shorter Web site address, I need 25 people to "Like" it. I am hoping I could ask for help. I would need for people to first click the link below, and then click on "Like".

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Moon-Spa/247383158624759

My goal is about 16,000 words, and I am at 13,876 as of this exact moment. I haven't written out the step by step description of the demonstrations, which I figure is probably another 1,000 words. There are very few illustrations and pictures in it, but it is at almost 55 pages double spaced. In other words, it is close. Now comes the proof reading and copy editing and all that. It has been a good experience thus far, though quite honestly a little intimidating at points.


I am posting this to my blog because I know I have former students who may not be friends with me on Facebook who may be able to help out.

Big News

So as those of you who read my blog know, I was on leave for the 2010-2011 academic year from PCCC. I am officially back as of today, since today starts the 2011-2012 academic year.

That is not the big news, however.

I told my classes in person last year that one of the things I wanted to do with my year was to work on a manuscript for a textbook. I submitted a sample chapter to a publisher in November, and I hadn't heard anything from them, so I just sort of assumed it wasn't going anywhere. However, I did do some side work for the same publisher, doing some test banks, PowerPoint presentations, and other supplements for some of their textbooks.

I received an email last week from the publisher, wanting to speak with me. They said in effect that I've proven to be an asset with the smaller projects I've worked on, and that they'd like to move me up to a bigger project. The woman who emailed had read my sample chapter, and we've come to terms on a book. Yes, I will be an author!

I'm going to be writing a smaller textbook that they will bundle in upon request from a college. There is a new Office textbook series they are coming out with called "Your Office". I know for their other textbooks, the main Office topics (Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint) are usually sold together as one big textbook (as you see with the 1000 page Go! with Office 2010 text). To allow faculty freedom to teach other topics, they have a series of smaller books they can bundle with it. For example, instead of having a chapter on Windows 7 there, faculty can choose a smaller 96 page Windows 7 book, or get the Windows Vista one instead. If you'd like to additionally teach topics like Internet Explorer, OneNote, Outlook, or one of any number of topics, you can get one of the smaller books bundled in with the main book. My book will be the equivalent for the Your Office series, and the topic is Web 2.0 applications like social networking, blogging, podcasting, and cloud computing. I am still working on finalizing a projected table of contents.

The publisher gave me a link to the marketing materials, and I have to admit, the main series editor and I have a very similar approach to education, and I think this is a great fit for me.

My Bookshelf

I am in the process of doing some updates to my place of residence. As part of it, I ended up cleaning out my bookcase and reminiscing about some of the books I found there. It seemed like a cool idea to mention what's on my bookcase and why.

Google Hacks (2005): This book was a pretty cool book for the time, teaching you how to use many of the Google services more efficiently. This book is how I learned about some of the special Google commands (as basic as using the title command or as in depth as using commands like inurl). It also gave a bunch of Perl scripts you could use to do all sorts of cool stuff, effectively combining a Perl script and Google to give you the power to automatically perform and parse searches. This book doesn't seem to have continued past the third edition (I have the second), but it is a cool read, especially for those of you with knowledge of programming.


Fire in the Valley (2000): This book details the history of the personal computer, going back to the days when people ordered the parts and put them together themselves. The central part of the book details the battle between Apple and Microsoft, made more famous by the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley. I found it fascinating, though a little dry at times.

The Art of Intrusion (2005) / The Art of Deception (2003): Two books by Kevin Mitnick detailing some hacking and social engineering topics. It is fascinating how social engineers can manipulate a person to the point where you are thanking them as they steal your information. These books taught me about things like SQL injection attacks (which we just talked about in my 163 course - see page 175 of the Art of Intrusion). I asked the librarians at both PCCC and BCC to get these books to have on hand, they are definitely worth checking out.

Cryptonomicon (2002): This is a tough read, but it's an excellent fictional novel. It has two main storylines. The first has to deal with a group of people in World War II who have broken the German's secret code (Enigma). This was early cryptography, and it was interesting to see the characters intercept messages but not actually warn troops sometimes, because they also did not want the Germans to know they had broken the code. The second storyline has to do with a group of more contemporary individuals trying to create a secure digital cash system, using cryptographic methods.

And, just to show I have more than computer books on the shelf...

The Butterfly Revolution (1961): I actually had to read this for a freshman class in high school, and my teacher gave me one of the books since I liked it so much. It has to do with a socially awkward teenager who goes to a summer camp, where he ends up involved in a takeover of the camp. Chaos ensues. Picture "Lord of the Flies" in a summer camp.

The Machine (2009): A book about the 1975 Cincinnati Reds. Even as a child, I read a lot of books about baseball. I remember in high school having to write a persuasive essay, and I wrote one arguing that Pete Rose (featured in this book) was innocent of gambling charges. Of course, he later admitted this so I was wrong, but as a fan, I guess I was blinded. So, the book involved one of my favorite players, and had the extra bonus of being authored by my favorite sports blogger, Joe Posnanski. I've been reading his stuff for years, and it was cool to see him go from a small writer for a Kansas City newspaper to someone who writes for Sports Illustrated. Behold, the power of the Internet!

The New New Thing (2000) / Moneyball (2004) / The Blind Side (2008): All these books are written by Michael Lewis. I was first introduced to him through the first book listed, which was about Dr. Jim Clark, founder of Netscape and Silicon Graphics, and how it was fascinating for him to take chances on new technologies and stay at the forefront (and find the new "new thing"). The book detailed a company called Healtheon, which later merged with WebMD. The Blind Side and Moneyball were both excellent sports books which had movies made from them.


The Closing of the American Mind (1988): This book was recommended to me a few years ago by a colleague from PCCC, Dr. Ida Greidanus. The author feels as if modern colleges and universities are failing students, and that America is in a crisis regarding higher education. I think this book made some excellent points which got me thinking about my teaching in a different way.

The Dark Half (1989): The first Stephen King book I ever read.


There are many more books on the bookcase, but I think that's a good enough sample for today!

Back to School (Fall 2010 Edition)

Today starts a new semester...as I mentioned at some point, I will be teaching two classes at Bergen.

I think in my case I have become very comfortable in Passaic. As a full time faculty member, I have a lot of freedom as to what I do in my classes. As I am a creature of habit, when I found something that worked, I stuck with it.

I have been teaching since 2001, and I hope I have improved each year, but the only place I have taught a formal class is at PCCC. I am impressed with the amount of work the department chair does at Bergen to provide support for the faculty teaching the intro course. I know some faculty resist things like standard tests, etc. However, I generally do not find this offensive. I may be in the minority, but I feel like if we as a community college want four-year colleges to accept our courses, there needs to be some standardization. I have heard it argued that the four-year schools do not standardize, but all we can do is keep our side of the street clean.

My prep time is less because the full time folks have done work setting up tests, assignments, etc. I generally spend a lot of time on assignments, so they have freed up my time. As such, I am going to try new things that I would not have had the time to do at PCCC. There is no doubt that this will make me a better educator.

So today I have INF 101 004, an Intro to IT course similar to PCCC's CIS 107, and INF 163 001, similar to PCCC's CIS 152. My experience at Bergen will certainly serve me well, and I am excited to get started.

My Fall Plans

As I mentioned earlier, I am taking a leave from PCCC in the Fall semester. I mentioned earlier that I wanted to recharge. However, that doesn't mean I am going to do nothing with my time.

One thing students do not always get to see is how active some professors are outside the classroom. I know it took me three years at Montclair State to figure out that my professors actually had other obligations besides teaching and office hours and course development. I guess it just never crossed my mind that all sorts of things need attending to.

For example, who approves changes to courses and programs? There should be some sort of process where other people in the college can discuss proposed changes. One of my duties has been to prepare some of our curriculum changes, filling out the appropriate paperwork, and getting my department on board. This also involved presenting the changes to our Curriculum Committee (ably chaired by another member of my department, Professor Bamkole). If there were changes suggested by that committee, I would then incorporate them. I would need to present them again at the Academic Council - this is the entire College community. Again, people could make suggestions and I would need to incorporate them. Any small change to a course required at least three meetings and a number of possible revisions. In other words, rewriting a course description might take 30 minutes to rewrite and then 5 hours to document, present, revise, re-present, and revise.

Point being, there are a lot of responsibilities of being a full-time faculty member that are not necessarily obvious. I wanted to update you on my fall plans.

First of all, I will be teaching two classes at Bergen Community College. I am scheduled to teach INF-101-004 (similar to PCCC's CIS 101) and INF-163-001 (similar to PCCC's CIS 152 class, but with more technology and less business. The courses both meet in the late afternoon, which is interesting, since we generally have problems filling classes in those time slots at PCCC. Bergen does things a little differently, so I am working on getting fluent in their WebCT/Blackboard system, as well as learning the INF-101 textbook. It's a book that is taking a really interesting approach to things, and I look forward to trying it out.

I am also working on a few side projects.

I am working on doing some of the supplements for a new edition of the Exploring Access 2010 textbook (test bank questions, etc). I am also working on a manuscript for an Office textbook.

I also will be doing some work with teachers and possibly students through the PRISM program at Montclair.

Should be an interesting semester, to say the least.

Leave

I know I announced this in some of my classes, but I wanted to make a public mention of this.  I will be taking a leave of absence from PCCC next year.  Since I am tenured, this is not an end, but rather a chance for me to take some time and recharge. The College has supported me in this, so I thank them for that.

My plan is to return in the Fall 2011 semester.  I still plan on updating this blog and being around, and of course I will be at graduation this year (and next year).

Learning Technology

One of the problems with teaching technology is that everything changes.  Many times, people just sort of stick with the features they know and just look for the spot where that same feature is, rather than learning the new features of a program.

The most recent example I can come up with is Office 2007.  People got very frustrated with a new interface, even if it is a simpler interface.  One company even created a program to make Office 2007 look like Office 2003, and charges $30 for it.  People will pay $30 to stick with the old interface!  (To be fair, businesses don't like dealing with retraining, because it costs money).

This does go beyond new versions of software.  I remember when I was in college, we were being taught the C programming language (something we computer people use to actually create computer programs).  The college upgraded to a newer version of the language called C++, and I did not bother to take advantage of the new features.  For those who know programming, C is designed to be procedure-oriented, while C++ is designed to be object-oriented.  It took me years to gradually accept the object-oriented programming method.


The reason this is on my mind is because I went to a conference in the city last week, and they included a demonstration of Windows 7.  I have had Windows 7 for a while at home as my primary operating system.  I didn't realize how many features I haven't been using, because much like the programming days in college, I have been using Windows 7 like it was still Windows XP.  I am planning on spending some time playing around with the new features this weekend and re-learning my behaviors a bit, because that's what a technology person should be doing, right?

My experience with the legal system

I believe I mentioned that I was on jury duty for the county I live in a few weeks ago. It was certainly an interesting experience. I ended up getting selected for a trial and serving on a jury for a criminal case. The case involved a defendant who had been pulled over and found with drugs in his car. While the arrest was happening, an officer sustained an injury.

(For the record, the judge did say that we can discuss these things, for anyone wondering. I am going to avoid specifics and stick with my impressions of the whole experience)

First of all, it amazed me that it took two full days to pick a jury. The first two days I served were not anything to do with the trial; instead, I was waiting in a jury box watching people get selected and then struck by the attorneys. What amazed me was that they interviewed each prospective juror individually. The problem I have with the situation is that so much of this could be improved with technology. You had 75 people come in a room Tuesday with me, and most of them ended up dismissed because of the ways they answered the juror questionnaire. In order to be dismissed, they first had to go and sit with the judge and lawyers for a few minutes. I immediately thought of little touch screen devices, asking the same questions they were asking people on paper, and based on people's responses, automatically filtering people out if necessary. There are certain reasons that people can be dismissed, and that I won't talk about, but if those reasons showed up during the survey, why did the person need to wait the entire day sitting on the benches waiting? People literally waited 6 hours to walk up to the judge, give him their juror survey, and be sent out of the room immediately. Some of the questions saw the judge ask a follow up question. The mobile devices I am imagining could be programmed to do the same - if someone says "yes" to this question, ask this follow up yes/no question.

I'm going to make up a silly example here, just so I am not specific about the questions on the actual survey. Let's pretend the case has something to do with cats, and they are going to bring in 10 cats. Your jury questionnaire would probably ask each juror if they are allergic to cats, because you then would not be able to be around so many cats. If we had this device, anyone who was allergic to cats would be able to be dismissed back in to the jury pool and either put on another case or send home (because you CAN be called as a prospective juror for multiple trials in the same day). Heck, the survey could even be done before you go in to any courtroom, and anyone allergic to cats could be routed to another trial that does not involve cats.

Now, why not do this survey from home, which did cross my mind? You can not yet assume everyone has access to the technology and the ability to use it, and you also don't want to worry about people's forms being stolen and used by a stranger, so an in-person verification at the courthouse may be necessary.

One the jury was selected, the judge asked for our cell phone and home phone numbers, in case there was an emergency. We reported to a jury room for 9 am and proceeded to wait each of the three days the trial was going on. It would be very labor intensive to expect someone to call all 14 of us (12 jurors, two alternates), but why not use an alert system? Much like PCCC's Emergency Alert System - the "Panther Alert" - the courts could have said "the judge is busy, be here for 10:30 am instead of 9 am today". That would have allowed me and the other jurors a little time to run a few errands.

At the end of the trial, if you want to see the transcripts (for example, let's say we wanted to see exactly what one witness said, word for word). In order to do so, they print things out and you have to look through pages and pages to find it. Why not put this on a very simple device that would let you view the document and use "Find"? You save paper waste, you also save on having to pay to shred these documents, and you make your jury more efficient. You don't need a cutting edge laptop to do this - you could do this on a very basic machine that needs only the operating system and Adobe Acrobat on it.

It was an interesting experience, but the only thing that really bothered me was the fact that so much of my time was wasted just sitting there. Technology can alleviate these issues and I am sure it will in the future.

How to Avoid Me in the Fall 2009 Semester

I've received a few student emails lately asking which courses I am teaching in the Fall. Oddly enough, some of these have come from students I do not know, which I always take as a high compliment.

As far as I know, here is my Fall schedule. The reason I say "as far as I know" is because any of the other full-time faculty members in my department always have the right to bump me from a class if they want to.

CIS-101-M09 Comp Concepts/Applic (this is updated as of 8/6/09)	Tuesday, Thursday 11:45AM - 01:00PM
CIS-125-W01 MICROCOMPUTER SOFTWARE I (Wanaque Campus)	Monday, Wednesday 11:45AM - 01:00PM
CIS-152-ME1 INTERNET/E-COMMERCE TECH.	Tuesday, Thursday 05:40PM - 06:55PM
CIS-290-M01 DATABASE FUNDAMENTALS	Tuesday, Thursday 10:20AM - 11:35AM
CIS-294-M01 CIS INTERNSHIP	To Be Scheduled
CIS-295-M03 CAPSTONE PROJECT (Web Technology)	To Be Scheduled
CIS-295-M04 CAPSTONE PROJECT (Business Technology)	To Be Scheduled

Site Navigation and other Goodies

(If you are viewing this from Facebook, you'll need to visit profcameron.blogspot.com to see the things referenced in this post)

I notice some interesting Google searches that end up on my little blog, for example, in the last week, I've had some of the following:

"email hoaxes personality types"
"i am an employee i want free resumes database of employes jobs of biometrist in newzealand"
"how to attract professor"
"she-goat, wolf and cabbage download"

I am not even sure what some of those folks were looking for, but they put those terms in to Google and found my site.

Anyway, just for reference, I wanted to mention some of the things I have set up through Blogger:

1) Email updates: Google's Feedburner service allows you to get my posts via email. It's free, and if you enter your email address in the box over on the left hand side, you can add (or remove) your email subscription. I've copied it here. If you enter your email and then click "subscribe" you will get my posts via email. Feedburner is spam-free, and I don't even see your email addresses without looking really hard to find them.

2) Site search: Up at the top left corner, there should be a text box from Blogger that says "Search" next to it. If you are looking for a keyword from a prior post, you can use that to search.

3) Labels: At the end of each post, you will see an area that says "labels" - these are little keywords I attach to each post. For example, I will label this post with keywords like "Google". If you want to search all things related to one of MY labels, there is a list of labels along the left hand side of the screen, typically about a screen down from the top of the page. Clicking on a label shows you all posts I gave that label to.

4) Facebook updates: I created a Facebook account, and set it up so my blog shows up there as a "news" item. Posts from my blog show up on my wall in Facebook, so you don't need to even remember my Web site address of profcameron.blogspot.com to get here. You can add me at any time.

I'll be posting my Fall 2009 schedule next week, and also discussing jury duty (I got selected for jury duty for the first time, and it's been an interesting experience - but I am not supposed to really discuss much until the trial is over - better safe than sorry).

Okay, I broke down and joined Facebook...

So, I've gotten a lot of requests to join Facebook, and I've been very careful about it. To make a long story short, the school's administration once cautioned me about this sort of thing. I had set up an AOL instant messenger screen name specifically for my students, and word of it got back to the higher ups and I was told to not do that.

I think that education goes outside of being lectured to, and that the world is changing so that more informal methods of communication (i.e. Facebook, IMing) are the norm for the younger generation...which, on many levels, I am a part of.

Anyway, if you want to "friend" me there:
here is the link

For the record...much like this blog, it's going to stay relatively professional.

Spring 2009 semester is here!

So, today (1/21/09) marks the beginning of the Spring 2009 semester. I'm looking forward to a good semester.

I've realized that sometimes (especially if you are not a student of mine) that my Office Hours may be hard to come by, so on the left hand side of the page, I've added a link to my Office Hours for this semester. I have it set up so that in future semesters, it should redirect to the current semester's office hours as well.

Also - if you want to get email when this site is updated...there is a link on the left hand side to feedburner. When I update, you get email, and only when I update. They're trustworthy - Google owns them.

Here's to a good semester!

Year++;

At midnight tonight, we transition from 2008 to 2009. On some level, it's arbitrary - what makes this date more important than any other moment in time? However, the thing that I think does is what it symbolizes. A blank slate, or tabula rasa, which allows us to begin anew. Could we begin anew on September 24th, let's say? Sure, but the symbolism of the new year is very powerful.

Many people choose this time to set resolutions. What can I do differently? Just remember, if you set these goals, use milestones. Don't just say "I want to go to the gym more" or "I want to stop smoking" or "I want straight A's next semester". The problem with goals like this is that timelines are very cloudy.

It's all well and good, for example, to say "I want to get straight A's", but if you make that a resolution and forget about it until April, you may discover you are closer to straight "F's". Instead, you should remember this goal. Make sure every Friday, let's say, you devote extra time to studying.

The same type of thing happens sometimes when people say "I want to lose 30 pounds this year" - they get to April and they have lost two pounds, and they just sort of say "heck with it". If people dedicate themselves to it, say "3 pounds a month" and weigh themselves on the first of each month, they know what they're doing right and wrong as time goes on.

A resolution is not powerful if you don't revisit it, otherwise it is just wishful thinking.

I want to thank you all for a great year. Teaching has improved my quality of life and my happiness, and many of you have made impacts on my life in the same way I've made impacts on yours.

I wish you all a safe and happy holiday, and I hope your resolutions for 2009 come true.

PS: In some computer programming, languages (for example, Perl or C++), typing out
Year++;
would increment the variable Year by 1, hence the title of today's blog.

Back to School!

So it's about that time again!

I'm very excited, personally. I am at 17 credits (which is low for me, but considered a lot of credits to be teaching). I will be teaching 6 different courses:
CIS 101 (section A1)
CIS 125 (A1)
CIS 126 (E1)
CIS 152 (E1)
CIS 290 (01)
CIS 294 (01)

Along with that, we're moving to Office 2007, and our school is opening the long awaited Passaic Academic Center, our fourth location in the county. At this point, there aren't a ton of courses being offered, but it is nonetheless exciting.

One other thing that is big for me personally is that I have been granted tenure. I know I rarely discuss personal matters here, but what the heck. Tenure is a difficult process - there is a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that students don't see on a day to day basis that we're required to do. I believe I started with 10 other faculty members. Of the 11 of us, only four of us received tenure, and of them, I am the youngest.

According to Wikipedia, tenure is "...life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic's contractual right not to have their position terminated without just cause." For me, this means that I can really work to be a positive force and do what's right for the students as much as possible, and put aside some of the worries about the politics of the job.

For those of you who are former students, I always appreciate the positive and constructive comments on the teacher evaluation forms (SRI's), and I still have every one I've ever received. They've helped me to focus in on what you as a student think I could do better, and really, that's what the job is all about.

Classes start this Thursday, and I'm excited to see my classes for the first time this semester. It should be a fun semester, as always!