Phase VI - The last hill

OK I am in the last phase. I await my paper from the final editor. I hope to defend within the next two weeks. Graduation was great. I can not wait to get the degree posted on my transcript. I have the copier on standby and I am going to apply to every University that will take my CV and app. Its time to start making money teaching subjects I love to teach.

Phase IV

I am pleased to report that the paper has finally moved out of committee and is now in the hands of the graduate reader. SHe has advised me that she will be complete within the next week. I have two more phases of editing after her. I am very anxious about the final editing steps. I am so close it is difficult to be patient. I need this process to be over soon. I am currently looking for opportunities to utilize my new skill sets. Any ideas????

Getting ready to move on with the paper

Ok sports fans the paper is getting ready to move on to the next series of editors. This is a good thing!! We are pushing for a Feb 28 completion date. I hope to defend in Mid February. I will post the Defense date as you are all invited. The defense will be a public event. I will let you know. I start teaching tomorrow at Lindenwood - Essentials of Firefighting - Tuesday and Thursdays for the Spring Semester. Starting small.

Status Report

Ok well the paper is complete in rough draft form. I am just about complete with phase 1 of the Committee edits. I submit my paper to them on the 19th. I hope to start phase 2 (There are 5 phases of editing) on the 20th and finish up by the end of Feb. I am hoping to defend in mid-Feb. I am so ready to be done. I have secured my first job teaching for a Universtiy. I am hoping to find several more. I am looking for a fulltime (teaching) class load during the evening.

Update 12-28-2009

Ok we had the first successful week of Metro wide video teleconferencing testing. We had Glendale, Ferguson, Monarch, Pacific, Eureaka, Spanish Lake, Creve Coeur, Richmond Heights, Pattonville, Olivette, Fenton and Florissant all attend. We did have several IT issues with different departments but for the most part we got them worked out and they were expected.

We proved the system works. We shared documents. We delivered training power points, We proved this can be an effective training delivery medium. Look for more to come form the training cordinates. We have just begun. Thanks Robb

Dec 2009 Update

OK so here is the update as of 12-11-2009. The rough draft of the paper is complete. I am in the editing phase and expect to defend in early February. The Video Teleconferencing project is going very well. We are getting ready to have our first regional class next week. I am looking forward to the opportunity to make our training better and more collaborative. Adapt overcome and improvise.

St. Charles FD is nearly finished with the transition to training via the web. The modification to the stations is complete with the exception of a few minor items. We still struggle with getting station 4 completed but we will get there. All station will soon have wireless keyboards and mice connected to their second computers that run thru their flat screen TV’s. These are located in the day rooms of the fire stations. So far it seems to be working well. MS Live Meeting has proven to be a solid training tool. Any issues seem to stem from my lack of understanding on how the system was supposed to work. MS Live Meeting support has been very good to work with. I will have a new Power Point up soon as well as my thesis for your review. Thanks .. Robb

Update

OK, we are moving forward on using Microsoft Live Meeting for training. The meetings are still going well. We have to change the computer placements in the stations in order for everyone at the station to be able to attend. We are currently set up in the offices at the stations. However we can not ask to have everyone pack into the small office to view the training. We also do not have any place for them to sit in the offices. So we are moving to the living areas. We are placing new computers, network drops and additional web cams near the big screens at the stations. We are running the computers to the big screens and setting the web cams on top of the TV's to face the students. We are hoping to have all of these station classroom set up by Sept 1, 2009.

Once the stations are all set up I am going to begin the process of implementing the "Best Practices" solution I have been researching. Then we are going to move all (lecture based) trainings and meetings to the Video Teleconferencing system. We can have 1250 different computers attend. So once we get St. Charles City system perfected we can expand it.

We have also started doing training officers meetings on the system. The first one was a success. More to follow...

All classes are now done for the degree. Now I just have to write the disertation.

Robb