Hello, my name is Paul Baker.  I am from a city in northeast Indiana called Ft. Wayne.  I lived outside the city in the country and it was a nice place to grow up.  I went grade school at St. Therese and high school at Bishop Luers, both are located in Ft. Wayne.  I am a business major and a senior. I would like to get into sports management or possibly finance.  I have a very large family and I am the third of nine.  There are five girls and four boys and my two older siblings are married and have children.  I am taking this class to become more familiar with computers and I also think it will be helpful to be able to create a website in my future in business. I think that technology is becoming commonplace in almost all of society, and it is important to learn to use it properly.

Broe, Ruth

Hey I’m Ruth Broe but everyone calls me Rudy.  I know it’s a boy’s name, but I prefer it to the grandma name, Ruth, I was given.  I have lived in Maryland my whole life up until two years ago when I came to UD.  Now that I’ve lived in Texas, I love the green trees and cold winters of Maryland so much more.  I do not plan on staying in Texas longer than I have to, so after school hopefully I’ll move to a cooler place. 

I am the middle child in my family, I have an older brother who prepared me for the ways of immature boys and made me somewhat of a tomboy, and a younger sister who forced me to play dolls with her and helped me not lose touch with my girly side.  I have played sports my whole life up until college.  Along with sports, I have recently taken up an interest in music and have been teaching myself to play the guitar.  It’s a work in progress but who knows, maybe someday I can be the music teacher at an elementary school.

Before UD, I attended a community college in Maryland for a year.  I absolutely hated it, but if I had to say one positive thing about the experience it would be that it made me ready to leave home.  I declared my major as interdisciplinary studies in education just last semester, and so far, it seems to be working out.  My main reason for wanting to be a teacher is I love children, and I believe I should enjoy what I’m doing now, rather than suffer through boring business classes and hope that I find a job that interests me for a few months.  With teaching I know there will always be something interesting to make me stick with it; you never know what will come out of a child’s mouth.  So for now, education is the most enjoyable thing I can do and know I will enjoy.  I am taking Computer Problem Solving because it is required for my major and also because I can’t have the children I teach know more about computers than me.  The class will also hopefully help me create interesting ways to teach children.    

Hello, my name is Travis Ekmark. I was born in Colorado, but I was raised on a navy base called Yokosuka, Japan. Both of my parents are teachers—my dad is a health teacher and my mom is a P.E. teacher—for DoDDS, which stands for the Department of Defense District Schools. Growing up in Japan, I have been shown, and have grown accustomed to a very different culture from that of the United States. Due to the fact that Japan has a very low crime rate—there are no firearms allowed in Japan—my parents let me wander about by myself/with friends at a much earlier age than they would have had we lived in the states. Because of this, I feel like I was able to learn to be more independent. I attended elementary, middle school, and high school on the navy base and up until the time I began my career at UD that was all I knew, education wise. I was drawn to the University of Dallas through my interest in playing basketball at the collegiate level. Now that I am here, I plan to earn my bachelor degree in history, and at the same time earn my accreditation in education—that’s why I am taking the Computer Problem Solving class. Technology, for me, is useful when I need it to be. When I need to do something on the computer, technology comes in handy. I have no obsession with technology, and I have no quarrels with it either. 

Hello!  My name is Meghan Frost and I am a military brat; consequently, I do not have a hometown.  I was born in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin and I went to high school in Slidell, Louisiana and I have lived everywhere in between.  My parents (Corky and Michelle) are originally from San Antonio, Texas and my family currently lives an hour outside of the city in the small town of Bandera.   I have three siblings: Ben (Notre Dame ’10), Molly (Bandera HS ’11), and Emily (Bandera HS ’13).  A quirky tradition is that we always have Mexican food for Christmas dinner.  I am a junior here at UD and am a Theology major.  Also, I am an RA in Jerome Hall, I work at CSO, lead FCA, and I play basketball and lacrosse.  My intention is to join the Peace Corps after graduation, teach until I pay off my loans, and ultimately go to Trade school.  I am taking this course because I hope to obtain a teaching certificate before I graduate and this is a required course.   Technology is society frustrates me because I feel that common courtesy has been lost.  Phone manners are neglected, and internet etiquette too often goes untaught.  This is unfortunate because technology is phenomenal and has great potential for our future and for the future of education.

My name is Richard Simpkins, and I’m from Garland, TX.  I am, however, the first American in my family.  Both my parents are from South Africa, and moved to the US shortly before I was born.  My mother’s side of the family all moved to Texas, while my father’s side (except for my father) all stayed in a small town called Amanzimtoti, near Durbin.  I have worked off and on in various aspects of the computer and internet industry, including TI, GTE, TXU, and REI.  Most recently, I worked in social networking, helping to plan a new strategy to use geolocation to help people plan outdoor activities.  I initially came to UD to leave the technology field, but have recently come to the conclusion that technology is an integral part of any profession, especially teaching.  I’m taking this class as part of a certification requirement, but I  also hope to get a lot of information about classroom integration, here, as I have little experience with technology in a classroom setting.  My hobbies include hiking and SCUBA diving, and I am planning a 1,000 mile hike across France and Spain, next summer.