Blackboard entry: My Introduction

This is my first major post (though it was preceded by several late-night notes!) at the Blackboard site for this course. It provides an overview of my background, insofar as it pertains, to this exciting educational experience.

(As mentioned in my Tweets & Facebook Status Updates last night... actually, this morning! ;-)... I finished up my work (and other stuff) in Brookens Library, right before the midnight closing.

I also saved a draft entry at my new blog (and just did so again, for tonight; they will both be published, ASAP). I am SO GLAD to be in a collegiate course, in which blogging (which has become so prominent, in such a short amount of time!!) is a part of the curriculum!!

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I am 28-years-old, and a I graduated from Springfield High School (SHS, here in the state capital) in 1999, from Lincoln Land Community College (LLCC, also here!) in 2002, and with a Bachelor's from UIS in 2005.

My B.S. degree is in Political Studies (now called "Political Science" :-), but I have been involved with computers, the information superhighway, social media, and technology, for quite some time now.

It was in high school that I started on web design; SHS was the first school in the Springfield area to (among other "benchmarks") integrate the newest internet-based technology in the educational environment.

In college was where I got really into web design - For effeciencies sake, I used a "WYSIWYG" program, Adobe PageMill 3.0... That has now become so old, that Windows Vista doesn't even support it; I am now taking a class in Adobe Dreamweaver ("Intermediate Web Design") this semester... It's about time I learned that!

It was in my first semester living on the UIS campus (Fall 2002) that I started my first blog. I chose to name it "University Blog" and gave it the url "uis.blogspot.com"! :-)

My blog dealt with some personal topics, but became mostly known for political commentary (especially with the Iraq War looming).

As mentioned a few years ago (when more UIS people were getting into the Blogosphere):
When I started my first blog, I thought I was the only student blogger here at UIS. I later found out, after a cool conversation with this guy, that I wasn't even the first!!

From September, up through the present (though my contract has now ended), I've been working for the Braynard Group, Inc., a political consulting & web design company, based in the Washington, D.C. area. For this position, I did website maintenance and website data analysis (for a couple of our clients), and for others, content promotion; for the latter task, I had to implement the latest "social bookmarking" and social networking ("Web 2.0") services. I had already become proficient in (and known for implementing!!) Facebook and Twitter, and discussion forums, and editing Wikipedia (and of course, the Blogosphere!), and now I had to use Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and the others.

[Next part of Blackboard thread, in following entry.]