Blogging and me!

During my working at the university in Egypt, I used to be an active team player and a contributor to the community. I had organized many seminars, job fairs, training sessions and social activities within the faculty. I was popular and caring teaching assistant staff member, in a small still-growing faculty for computer science and information systems. Yes, a small software technology factory, which aims to educate and prepare undergraduate students to face the life. Using the technology in such an environment is a must. That's why I used emails social networks and groups to communicate with the students and to stay connected with friends. Of course, I know about blogs and how brilliant they are in expressing your views and ideas and I tried to build one. However, I didn't use it! I think this is because of not having the time to set down and write about something I'm interested in or something I hate. I always had this idea of doesn't have the time to do that!

Now, by taking part of the Leicester Award, I'm going to change this. Honestly, I had many ideas before that I wanted to talk about, not necessary with people you know and talking to them  face to face, but also with other people who you may not reach by direct contact as your friends. Blogging opens the door for me to be heard world-widely and makes me feel better by writing about what I know.  Actually, it can be an effective means of communicating ideas. I found some useful Blogs in my field of study and I found it interesting to be able to update your thoughts and believes, and to see how they are developed overtime. This gave me an idea bout how to use the blog in academia and for learning purposes too. I'm planning to use it to communicate with my students back in Egypt. May be by designing a dynamic blog for the courses I'm going to teach, in which the students can find material about the course and some other general links that will help them improve their computer science culture.

In some posts on my blog (this one), I expressed my views in Egypt's political conflicts that arisen after the Egyptian revolution as part of the Arab Spring. Some people doesn't like the (Arab Spring)  as a title for a very difficult time that these countries facing in order to gain freedom and democracy, however, I like it. It is just like an Arabic Spring, when you have windy days, dusty storms, some rain, some sunshine, and most importantly, asthma and allergy sufferers  who hate this season. Among all that disturbing things, you find flowers grow and trees flourish. I blogged about my opinion in the new Egyptian constitution and how it is not well-formed enough for Egypt. I wrote about my passion for cooking, and how I was so happy to buy cooking books. I even try anew recipe every weekend. BTW, the last one was pizza (that is in the picture).

 

my mini pizzas

What I wanted to say is, no matter I'm busy, I can find sometime to express my ideas and communicate with others about what I do and what I want to do while blogging.