We recently had the annual experience of “falling back” due to Daylight Savings Time. Although I have ambivalent feelings about this particular method of saving time (because I’m not sure what we gain from it), I am always delighted with the idea of getting an “extra hour.” The freedom! That hour sometimes comes from a canceled meeting or a snow day (fingers crossed!). I love the way an extra hour provides breathing room and gives me a sense of permission to do something that feels like a treat, perhaps with more long-term value. Just for an hour. What would you do with an extra hour?
Julie Creamer, Director of Enterprise Information Systems (e.g., The Hub and OnBase), has introduced the idea of an “Hour of Power” to her group. A few times a year, they take an hour to explore something new and then share it with each other. Sometimes they make appointments to learn, in more detail, about what each other does.
Hour of Code
Five years ago the organization “Hour of Code” was started to broaden participation in the field of computer science, especially among girls. Since then, 643 million people have participated across 180 countries. The goal is to demystify programming and spur curiosity among children and their teachers.
The Hour of Code happens every year during Computer Science Education Week, which will be December 3-9. If you have never programmed, I would encourage you to give it a try! There are many one hour activities available, although my personal favorite is the Moana Hour of Code using a visual drag-and-drop programming language called Scratch. I had the pleasure of helping a Girl Scout troop (which included Jeremy Kramer’s daughter), and they picked up on it quickly and had fun, too!
“Hour of Power” Ideas
Since most things are more enjoyable to do with others, I invite you to join some of your ITS friends on Tuesday, December 4th in CMC 110 at noon. Bring your lunch and a laptop if you have one. Let’s code together!
ITS is also relaunching the very popular Minute-to-Learn-It series. You can view 60 of those in an hour! Or maybe not 😉 Stay tuned for Carleton Weekly announcements when new videos are available. In the meantime, you are welcome to review the quick tips already created about the G-Suite and Dropbox.
One Hour at a Time
Although few Carleton community members spend their time coding, many on campus are continually learning about technology. Consultants who visited campus last spring were very impressed with the savviness of our technology partners across campus. The ITS Annual Report highlights many of those partnerships, including Jaime Anthony’s foray into the world of WordPress as part of developing the new Admissions website.
We are all spending way more than an hour staying current with the evolving technology landscape. But as with most things, that knowledge is built one hour at a time.