User:Kenmatthias

My Learning4Content course home page

My profile

I am Ken Matthias, reside in Columbus, Ohio in the beautiful United States of America and am an avid user of technology (some good, some bad and most just learning).

I am the proud grandfather of a wonderfully handsome grandson of three, Brendan Michael Pocius. He is, of course, the most special child in the entire world (and he already knows it!). His mother, Krista Nicole Matthias, is my daughter. She is 22 years old and beginning a career as a pharmacy technician. My beautiful wife, Gina, is a regulatory consultant at Mount Carmen Health Systems. She is currently pursuing her Master's Degree in Hospital Administration with a Human Resources rider. She hopes to complete the degree by June 2011. We will be celebrating our 25^th wedding anniversary this coming November 30^th.

Professional background

I am employed at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine as an Educational Delivery Specialist where I assist faculty, staff and students in the use of the university content management system, Desire2Learn (we call it Carmen), posting course content and evaluating course design. I am also involved with various learning technologies in the college (Clickers, Smart Boards, Lecture Capture, ePortfolios, Wikis, and the list goes on and on....), as well as college website maintenance and technical support for the one45 program we use to track student clinical competencies and student/faculty evaluations for our fourth-year students as they enter their clinical year.

Education

I am a 1985 graduate of Capital University with a bachelor's degree in music theory and composition, my first love. I am also a 2010 graduate of The Ohio State University with a Master of Arts degree in Educational Technology from the College of Education and Human Ecology, School of Educational Policy and Leadership (that's a mouthful, indeed). I also plan on beginning an additional Master of Arts degree in Public Policy and Administration from the John Glenn School of Public Affairs. Education is a beautiful thing!

My interests

Professional

I am a life-long student (as can be seen by the pile of degrees I am collecting). I had never thought when I was an undergraduate that I would even remotely want to be involved in education at any level as a career choice. Now I find myself immersed in all things education, especially at the university level, and utilizing technology to actively engage students in the educational process as well as introduce faculty to the possibilities of using technology to assist in their teaching endeavors as well as increase learning excitement in the classroom.

My current pursuit is a Master of Arts in Public Policy so that I can integrate my educational technology degree to see how all this works at a government level (OSU is a state university) as well as how the politics both assist and detract from the process.

Personal

I am an avid musician by education. I enjoy writing and arranging all types of music, especially Jazz, and use my talents in my church praise band playing keyboards and my trumpet on occassion.

I love to travel and most recently spent three glorious, hot weeks in southern Spain with my wife and daughter. This was my second trip to Spain and hope it will not be my last. I always say that if I did not have all the responsibilities of live here in the states I would pack my bag and move, permanently, to Spain. I love the people, the culture, the architecture and, especially, la comida (that's food for those of you who do not know the language)!

My wiki projects

• I registered for eL4C41, a Learning4Content workshop to learn wiki skills.
• I have been involved with setting up specialized wikis for my college faculty through the Ohio State University wiki project, Carmen Wiki. This is actually the Confluence product by Atlassian. Various wikis including course specific (canine anatomy, veterinary bioscience pathology, equine medicine and surgery etc.) as well as research-based for collaboration between researchers at various universities regarding immunology topics.

My optional community service (learning contract) project

Agreement	By signing this optional learning contract I will try to complete my training in basic wiki editing skills to achieve the status of a Wikibuddy. In return for this free training opportunity, I will give the gift of knowledge by donating or developing at least one free content resource licensed under a CC-BY-SA or CC-BY license which can be used by myself (and others) on WikiEducator.
Brief description of project	<Enter a brief description of the content resource or WikiEducator project you would like to work on here>
Target date for completion	<Specify the target date for completion --- you choose the date which can be after the completion of this workshop>.
Signature	<Login and with the rich text editor click on the "Insert signature" button above: .>

Feedback and notes from my WikiNeighbours

• Welcome to the Wiki, Ken. You will enjoy this experience. Feel free to ask any questions. Just jump in and get started following the instructions that were sent by Wayne. Warm wishes --Patricia Schlicht 16:00, 21 July 2010 (UTC)
• (: Hello Ken, welcome to the WE. Impressive progress, keep it up ..... warm wishes Dr. Laxmi Narayan 00:15, 22 July 2010 (UTC))

(: Hullo Ken, Greetings from India. You sure are going to do well in this wiki workshop. As a wikineighbour I extend my wishes. You can learn much by visiting wikipages.....Cynthia. --Agnes 01:20, 22 July 2010 (UTC))

• Hi Ken, I can only agree with Laxmi, well done. You are on your way to becoming a skilled WikiMaster. Keep going. Warm wishes,--Patricia Schlicht 17:03, 23 July 2010 (UTC)
• Can I lift your comment "Education is a beautiful thing!" and use it in my blog <http://smithhappensalot.blogspot.com/2010/07/something-beautiful.html>? I have just started collecting statements on the theme of beautiful actions and decisions. Your statement fits into what I am trying to convey. Regards. [[--B J Smith 15:16, 29 July 2010 (UTC)]]
  (: Things that appear on WikiEducator pages are intended to multiply their effectiveness by being used elsewhere. All materials are uploaded to the site (not just pictures and other media) in the hopes (dreams?) that they will find numerous educational homes. Blogs, Moodle pages, Diigo sites, etc. are just the start!)Jrradney 16:41, 29 July 2010 (UTC)
  
• L4C41_Participants