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Creating a Mini-Masters Project
      This course will be approached as a mini-Masters project, meaning that we will establish a goal, gather data and information, analyze our information and formulate a final product with a summary. The final product will be a tool that will help us as individuals to manage, organize and maintain information about your individual interests, and to collaborate with others on the acquisition and distribution of information.
      We will start with two research strands: one to determine our interests and what information we want to manage for our ongoing professional learning, and secondly to find the technology and tools for this task.

Defining our Interests
      This has to be one of the easiest assignments in your learning career. It is almost always said that when you choose a topic or theme for an advanced degree, choose something you like and in which you are interested because you're going to be working with this for a long time. The challenging part, making this one of your most challenging assignments in your learning career, is determining in what you're really interested.
      There are many ways to approach this. Sit and chat with a dear friend. Start with broad categories. Make an outline. Start to ask yourself why you chose the way you did. Use these answers to refine and flesh out your outline. Monitor your life: what do you do, what do you wish to do, what do you read, how do you use the Internet, for for this project focus on what you want to learn.

Setting up Several Professional Networking Websites
      On the technical side we're going to set up several accounts on the Internet to manage our incoming flood of information.

      1- Setup a Gmail account. This should be simple because I believe most of you have. Go to google.com and click on Gmail.

     2-  Then set up an iGoogle page (go to igoogle.com). Experiment with the features and gadgets but expect to do more in class on Saturday.

       3- Also set up a Google Reader account (in Google.com click on more and then Reader).

       4- Lastly go to the course website ( http://www.wou.edu/~saxowsd/tech2/eden/amind/cse697/cse697.php ) and join the Google group called Professional Learners (lower portion of the right column on the welcome to CSE697 course page and on this page).