I have to say, I was nervous about going back to school.  While I did get a degree (Communications) outside of High School, that was 13 years ago.  I am glad to report that it was just like riding a bike for me.  Sitting down and reading the textbook brought back the memories.  Some chapters have put me to sleep and others have left me looking for more.  So far I have completed two classes in my goal to an Associates of Applied Science Degree.  Those classes are Introduction to Business and Introduction to Computers.  So far each one has taken me about a week and a half (working in the evenings and on weekends).

Introduction to Business was mostly a refresher course for me.  I had been a manager in a retail environment for 10 years and have run my own business (photography and graphic design) on the side for about 15 years.  I have also been surrounded my many former CEOs CFOs and COOs of major corporations that encompass the financial, tech and service sectors.  The curriculum is surprisingly up to date.  Breakdowns of Martha Stewart's insider trading, Enron's cooked books and Steve Jobs make the reading interesting for today's students.

Introduction to Computers was a bit of a bore.  I think in 2013 we would be able to move away from whole chapters on the functions of a keyboard or a mouse.  The information is a bit dated.  I know it is expensive to produce a text book every few years but this is going a little too far. There were mentions of floppy disks and dial up modems.  There were also statements saying "all computers contain an optical drive."  For years Apple has been producing computers that have no optical drives (CD,DVD).  There is also no mention of mobile media.  So much of our work these days are done on mobile platforms.  Even 5 years ago BlackBerry was common in the business market.  Now we have our iphones and ipads.  Personally I don't go to a jobsite without my ipad-mini.  I have all my blueprints, contract and budget documents at my fingertips.

While my next class is Business English I am excited to get onto some construction topics.  So far the process has been so smooth my wife is looking to go back to school.