Use Your Thoughts to Produce Personal Power

I have thought a lot lately about the importance of our thoughts and beliefs about life. I have come to the conclusion that what we think and believe has a direct influence on our success and happiness in life. What we think and believe directly influences how we act, and our actions produce the outcomes and results we experience in life. However, becoming aware of and changing thoughts can be extremely difficult, and many people aren't even aware of their own thought patterns. In addition, negativity and hopelessness is prevalent in our society and limits the happiness and success of many people. In this post I will describe the kinds of thoughts that produce personal empowerment and success and give suggestions on how to create personal power through your own thoughts.

Empowering Thoughts
To produce personal power, our thoughts must have two characteristics: They must be positive and the must be true.

The Power of True Thoughts
As you can see in the continuum image above, thoughts can be false or true. And thoughts that are true provide personal power. Knowledge produces power. When you increase your knowledge and understanding of what reality actually is, you increase your personal power because a thought is true if it is based on evidence. The more knowledge and truth you can gain, the greater your personal power. If your thoughts and beliefs do not align with the natural laws and principles with which the world functions, then they will not produce positive results. For example, you can think all day that you can fly, and you can even believe that you can fly. But natural laws seem to indicate that you cannot. But if you attempt to act on that belief, you will likely end up very scraped up or very dead. In the same way, we must be sure that our thoughts and beliefs are based on the best evidence we can find.

The Power of Positive Thoughts
 To produce personal power, our thoughts and beliefs must include a level of hope or faith that we can help bring about positive outcomes. A thought is positive if it constructively affirms your strengths and abilities and produces effective or meaningful activity. For example, you can think the thought "I am not a millionaire" and have any number of reactions to that true thought (assuming that you currently are not a millionaire). Your attitude might include the following thoughts and feelings: All of my high school buddies are millionaires, therefore I am a loser (negative). Millionaires are all dishonest or greedy, therefore they are losers and I am much more righteous than they (negative). I am happy with my life and am fine with not being a millionaire (positive). I am going to start an incredible business and become a millionaire in 7 years (positive).

All of these attitudes come to a conclusion about how you relate to the thought and therefore produce a feeling or attitude. If you want your thoughts and beliefs to give you a sense of empowerment, then you must ensure that they are positive and constructive, affirming your own true talents and strengths.


Producing Empowering Thoughts
So, what can you do to increase the power of your thoughts? You must consciously work to produce thoughts and beliefs that are positive and true. If you can deliberately apply yourself to move your thoughts in this positive direction, you will be astonished at the power and happiness it will produce in your own personal life.

Based on my experience, I recommend the following strategies:

1. Become self-aware. To improve your thoughts, you become aware of and monitor your own thoughts. This means you have to learn to think about what you are thinking your thinking, which can sometimes be very hard work. Ask yourself questions like these: What am I thinking about right now? Is what I am thinking true? Is it based on reality? Is what I am thinking negative? Does this thought hurt myself or others? Is my attitude about this thing giving me a sense of strength or empowerment?
2. Flood your mind with the positive. We live in a world with many negative messages, and you must therefore do everything you can to fill your mind with the good, pure, motivating messages. This might mean a change in some of your habits, but train yourself to read uplifting books, watch empowering documentaries and movies, and listen to motivating, empowering audio books and music. At the same time, eliminate negativity by cutting out mindless television, negative music, and negative people from your life.
3. Learn. Gain knowledge that is true. Do everything you can to gain more and more knowledge and abilities. Go to school and gain relevant, empowering knowledge. Read books, watch videos, and visit websites that impart knowledge about the world. Infuse your mind with knowledge so that you have a sound foundation to build on.
4. Seek Spiritual Truth. The most fundamental truths, in my opinion, are spiritual in nature. A positive relationship with yourself is founded upon a positive relationship with God. I have found that when I seek and "drink" from religious texts and teachings, my view of myself and life is heightened and refined. I personally draw great spiritual knowledge, perspective, and strength from reading the Bible and the Book of Mormon.
5. Travel. If you can, travel to new areas of your city, state, or country. Travel internationally, whenever possible. Learn about different cultures and people. When travel is not an option, go to museums and libraries. Do what you can to expand your view of the world and develop your understanding of what truth and reality is.

Do what it takes to increase your knowledge and improve your attitude. My experience has been that a consistent effort will yield excellent results. And consistently increasing knowledge through study and experience will slowly and surely build your capacity to achieve success and happiness. So, how will you improve your thoughts this week?

Planning Teaching Activities in Online and Hybrid Courses

It is a growing trend that instruction and learning in higher education is taking place increasingly online. Traditional face-to-face courses are now looking more like hybrids. And online courses are becoming the norm. But what if you have never taught online before? How can you begin to bridge your current skills to the new environment? In this post I share my advice:

1. Learn the tools of the online environment
2. Understand the weekly flow of your class
3. Plan your online teaching and course management activities

Learn the Tools of the Online Environment
It is important to become aware of the new tools that you can use to accomplish the activities you do in a face-to-face teaching environment. The table below identifies some of the general tools that are found in most Learning Management Systems. You can employ these tools to accomplish many of the activities you normally accomplish in a traditional environment.

It is crucial that you become familiar with these tools and master how to use them effectively in your work. Doing so will empower you to use the strengths of the online environment and will enable you to help your students move forward effectively. The table below outlines the tools that you might use to accomplish the activities you normally do as an instructor.

Traditional Teaching Activity	Online Tools
Grading	Grade Book
Feedback	Announcement (general) Email (general or specific) Assignment feedback in Grade Book (specific)
Communication to students	Announcement Email
Giving instructions	Announcement Email
Giving additional materials	Discussion Build Content Video Conference
Discussions	Discussion Boards Video Conference
Meeting with students	Video Conference Lecturing
Additional Instruction	Video Conference both live and prerecorded
Sharing Examples	Video Conference Discussion Board Announcement Build Content

The Weekly Flow of Your Class
Below is one visual display of how I plan out my week for courses that I teach in the IDPT Program at Franklin University. While this may not apply directly to your own teaching context, it should give you an idea of the kinds of activities you might schedule and perform in your own courses. You will notice that this image also displays the kinds of activities the students are performing during the same time period. You can see how the faculty member's activities are designed to support the work and the learning of the students.

Implementing Hybrid Technologies into Your Daily and Weekly Schedule
Once you have obtained the skills of using these tools, it is important that you plan out how you will begin to use these tools in your own teaching. This means that you must plan out which tasks you will perform throughout the week. I have personally found that scheduling time to do course management and teaching activities throughout the week really helps me to facilitate learning in an online course. As is implied in the image above, these activities should support your students' learning. I have found it helpful to schedule the following into my calendar:

• grading and feedback - I try to complete grading the day or two after the assignments are submitted so that students can read my feedback and use it in future assignments.
• planning and preparing my class meetings and slides to ensure an effective online meeting.
• participating in student discussion boards to help guide the students' thinking and to increase my presence in the class.
• responding to student emails (usually every morning and often throughout the day) to give students the support they need in their coursework.
• proactively scheduling online and phone office hours to meet with students in need.

Planning Your Own Online Teaching and Management Activities
If you are new to online teaching, or want to improve your effectiveness and efficiency as an instructor, take some time to plan your own weekly activities. In this case, I recommend identifying what activities you will perform on which days and at what times. This will help you have a clear idea of what you must do to maintain your presence in your online course and will help you more effectively support your students' learning .

Summary of Experiences in Saudi Arabia

I have spent the past week in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia working with faculty at Saudi Electronic University. The university offers education to thousands of men and women in Saudi Arabia, and I am excited to provide support the university's mission. It was an outstanding experience, and I feel blessed to have the opportunity and to meet and know the faculty members.

Below I link to the posts describing my experience.

• Arriving in Jeddah and First Evening in Jeddah 
• Visiting Old Jeddah
• More Photos in Jeddah
• An Evening in Jeddah
• Working with the SEU faculty
• Podcast: Collaborating in Saudi Arabia

Working With SEU Faculty

As I have written about in the last few posts, I have been in the town of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia working with faculty of the relatively new Saudi Electronic University (SEU). SEU has formed a partnership with Franklin University, and I am one of 6 instructors from Franklin who traveled to various cities in Saudi Arabia to teach. My role was to share best practices and technologies for effective teaching in a hybrid environment in higher education. The specific focus is promoting active learning in an online and hybrid environment. The class was scheduled over 4 days, and it was an absolutely wonderful experience. I will share highlights of my experiences with the faculty in this post.

This is the door to the building where we held the class. Because the university is so new, they are using classroom and office space in another school until their own building is ready for them.

The Faculty
First I will write about the faculty at Saudi Electronic University. These faculty come from several countries in this region of the world. There were faculty from Pakistan, India, and Saudi Arabia in the class. From memory, I believe that among the faculty were professors of Management, Accounting, Discrete Mathematics, Healthcare Informatics, and Economics.

Members of the Class Strategies for Teaching in a Blended Learning Environment. From left to right: Dr. Moin Uddin, Dr. Shahid Husain, Dr. Muhammad Mansoor Alam, Dr. Joel Gardner, Dr. Ahmed Albarrak, Dr. Mohd Saeed Khan, Dr. Saad Alnefee, Dr. Fahad Sikander, and Dr. Khaled Alghamdi. Mr Fahad Saeed is not present in the photograph but also participated in the class.

Many of these faculty members have a great deal of experience as faculty members and as travelers. Some of them had taught at multiple universities and in multiple countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. They all brought their experience to the classroom, and it really made the class more exciting and engaging.

I was very impressed with the dedication and purpose of these faculty members. Several of them left their home countries to come and teach at SEU. Some had been there only a few days while others had been at the university for only a few months. A few had had to leave their families at home to make preparations to have them come with them to their new home. The class that we held lasted all day, and several of the faculty members would then hold several classes in the evening, making for a very long day. And yet they were all quite present and engaged in the course. It was clear that they were thoughtful and reflective about their learning and were beginning to bridge our class topics to their own classes.

The Course
As I mentioned, my role has been to share best practices for engaging students in a hybrid learning environment in higher education. I also shared many of my own experiences and expertise in effective teaching and instruction. Because of my educational and professional background in instructional design, instructional technology, and learning sciences, as well as teaching and training, I was able to draw on my own expertise as these faculty members extended their expertise in hybrid teaching.

Building Community
I realized as time passed that this course provided a way for these faculty members to really build unity and form a sense of community amongst themselves - a professional community. As I mentioned above, these faculty were all relatively new to the university, and they hadn't had the time nor the format to really get to know one another. The workshop format was an outstanding way for them to build their relationship around their common roles at the university: teaching their students effectively.

The Food
One of the highlights of this trip was the excellent food - so delicious. This is my style of food - it seems to usually include a meat, rice, bread, and sauces of some kind such as Hummus or Ganoush. There was always an excess of food, and it was absolutely incredible.

I absolutely loved Cabsa, a favorite Saudi Arabian dish that includes rice, meat (chicken in this case), raisins, and several spices including Cardamom. It was very impressive and I certainly ate my fill. :) The portions of food were generous, and I ate with gratitude.

Saudi Electronic University
I am very impressed by how quickly the university seems to be moving forward in their goal to extend education to the men and women in Saudi Arabia. From what I gather, their plan is to significantly increase the number of students in their university each year for the coming 5 years. The faculty are dedicated to their students, the administrators that I met were also very impressive and quite qualified to lead the university forward. I will be excited to see the university continue to progress and move forward.

This is a photograph of one of the posters for the university.

I am extremely grateful for this opportunity. I  am humbled by the excellence of the people and the culture in Saudi Arabia. Everyone was kind, thoughtful and giving, and the land is beautiful. I am also pleased that my university gave me the opportunity to be there and serve. I am grateful that I have spent the last 8 years studying and applying the technologies, theories, and models that will hopefully benefit these faculty and their students for years to come.

An Evening in Jeddah

Last night our wonderful hosts from SEU took us out in Jeddah, again. It truly is a beautiful city with lovely people. It is great to see families out at night much later than in my hometown. The weather is probably much more tolerable in the evening, and it is a clean, safe city. I'll share some more photos below, complete with descriptions.

This is a photo of one of the larger buildings in the newer area of Jeddah. (Actually, most of Jeddah is newer as it has seen incredible growth over the last 50 years or so). This building was pretty impressive because the building actually became a giant photo display used for advertisement. Pretty mind-boggling.

 

We went to an aquarium that is housed right on the edge of the Red Sea. It was really cool - we saw several sharks of may varieties. Here is a school of fish.

And here is another fish. (Yes, that is about as technical as I can get in my description. I don't know what it is called - I just liked it).

While in Jeddah, we had two excellent young men serve as our drivers. I was driven most often by Yaser, and this is Ayup - he accompanied us on our trip to the aquarium. We also saw a dolphin show after this, which was pretty awesome. I don't have photos of that but will see if DiAnna, the other instructor working with SEU faculty, has some that I can use.

As we were leaving, I saw this sign right at the edge of the sea. I liked it and thought I would take a picture.

So far I have been very impressed with the generosity of the people I have met, worked with, and been served by. They are exceedingly polite and respectful, and I truly appreciated their generosity. There is a certain sense of security and peacefulness here in Jeddah. The police are present and provide a sense of security. Families, women and children walk freely, and as I have become more familiar with the environment, I have felt more peaceful and comfortable.

Working with the SEU Faculty

I will soon post about my experience working with the SEU Faculty. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been blessed with the opportunity to share my knowledge and experiences related to teaching in an online and hybrid environment. I have been working with this faculty for the past four days and concluded my work with them this afternoon. It has been sad to say goodbye, and I truly hope the best for them. I will post about the experience today or tomorrow on the flight home.

More Photos in Jeddah

Working with SEU Faculty

I have been working with the SEU faculty for the last couple of days and will write about our work together sometime soon. In short, these faculty members and staff are of a very high quality. I am impressed with their commitment to their students and to learning new technologies and teaching approaches. I am grateful to be working with and learning with each of them and consider it a great opportunity. 

Some More Photos from Jeddah

I thought I would share some more photos of my experience in Jeddah. There are many interesting things to see, and I will share some few images that share my experience.

This is the young man (Yasser) who has been driving me from the hotel to the university and back each day. He has been very professional and negotiates the roads with deft skill. He took me to the airport today so that we could pick up my luggage (which was somehow left in Washington D.C. for the last 4 days and finally arrived today, thankfully). He has taught me a little Arabic over the last couple of days, though I am a slow learner. :)

A photo of Hardees from the car. I find the Arabic script to be quite beautiful and it is strangely interesting to see it on the side of an American fast food restaurant.

All throughout Jeddah there are interesting and beautiful sculptures. This one is in the middle of the roundabout that is near our hotel. I'll try to share some more if I can pull my camera out quickly enough to photograph them.

Here is the diet 7UP that I drank this past evening. Again, I find the lettering to be lovely and I thought this was a pretty cool design for the 7UP can.

Here is a panoramic shot of the city from the balcony at the hotel. Just to the left is the Red Sea. The buildings in the far distance are the newer downtown area of Jeddah (I believe) and the building on the far right is the Hotel we are staying at. It is certainly a beautiful city.

* * *

I will keep giving updates as time goes on and as I am able. Again, the people here have been very welcoming and kind. I feel blessed to be able to represent Franklin University and to be a part of the initiatives at Saudi Electronic University . It is exciting to be a part of the expansion of educational opportunities.

Visiting Old Jeddah

Our wonderful associate from SEU, Nourat, (I may be spelling her name wrong, here - sorry!) took us to Old Jeddah this evening. It is the area that existed in ancient times, a small city enclosed by a protective wall with 4 gates. The city is known as the gateway to Mecca, so there is a great deal of history here. Over several hundreds of years, literally millions of faithful have come through these gates on their way to Mecca. It is an absolutely beautiful city with beautiful people. I took a few photos from our excursion and have shared them below.

Keep Reading
If you look down a little lower in the post, I share pictures and write about our visit to a small, lovely museum that we visited, as well.

Jeddah Bliss Museum

We had the opportunity to tour the Jeddah Bliss Museum, which was founded and run by two businessmen who have a passion for the history of Jeddah. It was quite a lovely experience. I'll describe bits of the museum and the experience below.

The front door of the museum.

These two gentlemen are those who founded and run the museum. They've spent the last 35 years gathering artifacts from many different countries and are now sharing some of their artifacts in the museum.  The sitting room pictured above along with all its furnishings is patterned after traditional sitting rooms from nearly a century ago. These rooms were a sort of family room, for eating dinner, and for visiting with guests.

These men were very passionate about their work, the museum, and the preservation of history. They have plans to continue to preserve history through their efforts and are partnering with others in their work. It was great listening to them.

 

The goals of the museum. Very cool to see this kind of passion and clarity of purpose.

Below are photos of some of the beautiful artifacts.

Beautiful window covers. I absolutely love these - incredible color and elegant style.

DiAnna Palmer and myself. We will both work with the SEU faculty for the next four days as they continue to work through their needs as instructors at SEU. I am quite excited to meet the faculty and get to know them and their needs and see how I can contribute.

A beautiful door.

This is a jewelry chest.

Incredible tea pots.

*     *     *

Again, it was a beautiful experience and I feel so blessed to be here and to work with such a great university and its people.

Arrived at Hotel and First Evening in Jeddah

Well, I have arrived at the hotel in Jeddah - staying at the Intercontinental Hotel, just by the Red Sea. It is a beautiful city and the Hotel is outstanding.

 

The Travel

The travel went very well - no hangups at customs, no layover problems, etc. - accept that somehow my bag did not get transferred from United Airlines to Saudi Airlines. I think the lady who checked me in with United didn't notice that I was moving on through Dulles Airport and I didn't make it a point to ensure that she noticed. So, I am going to be working on getting my bag back. I've talked to, called and emailed as many contacts as I can find with Dulles Airport and with United and Saudi Airlines, so hopefully someone will identify the problem, find my bag, and get it to me on the next plane from Dulles. Even if it doesn't make it, I will be just fine, here. I would rather receive the bag, of course.

It was pretty cool to fly over the Atlantic Ocean (which I couldn't see to well because it was dark), but the night sky was pretty amazing. I woke up in the morning and realized that we were flying over a giant dessert, likely African. The city of Jeddah is quite pretty, and the weather really is quite pleasant. Reminds me of Las Vegas in the wintertime.

It sounds like tomorrow we will have some time to see parts of the city and the region. We will then work with the university Monday through Thursday. I am quite excited to meet the SEU faculty members and see how we can learn together!

This Evening
Had some time to rest for the afternoon and then we went out to dinner with Noura who does public relations with Saudi Electronic University (SEU). We ate at a lovely cafe facing the Red Sea and learned more about the university and the area. Noura was very kind and thoughtful and is taking care of all of our needs. It sounds like tomorrow is a day to get to know the city and see some of the beautiful sites around town. I will certainly share some photos of the day.