My apologies for not being very social lately in terms of posting -- my personal schedule has been a little crazy this month and I haven't done a great job of staying up to date with my social network duties. I plan to get on track over the next several days, however, and will do a better job participating in conversations for the rest of the term.
This post may not be directly related to social networking, but more regarding distance education in general. Over the course of my MLIS studies so far, I have noticed that I tend to take the concept of online learning for granted. It's easy to do, especially when I'm involved in a community of other students who are familiar with Sakai and coworkers who use Blackboard on a daily basis.
While earning my MLIS, I have been fortunate enough to live with my parents in southern NH and do the majority of my coursework online (with some F2F in Durham/Worcester/Kingston) while still effectively learning the information needed for a career in librarianship. My parents are fairly computer savvy, but I find that I have had to explain to them a couple of times about the concept of online learning -- sometimes they seem to think that because I don't have F2F classes, I don't really have schoolwork. This can take a little extra discipline and patience on my part, especially during the summer months :)
As I mentioned before, I am getting back on track and will stay on top of things for the rest of the term -- but I just wanted to make this observation and wondered if anyone else has had similar experiences with friends or family members.
I also live at home, but my parents seem to understand the workload. I think I actually end up doing more work in my online classes than I would for a class that was completely F2F!
ReplyDeleteIt works the same from the other side too. People think because most of my teaching duties are online that I don't really work. Just as it takes a different type of discipline and determination to learn online, it takes a different, but equally challenging mindset to teach online. Interestingly some universities don't even get it (unlike URI) and think that you can teach more students online while paying the professor the same amount or less. For instance, our class is a large one for grad school...but one of the places I teach expected me to teach a class of 37! I did it, but just the grading was massive, not to mention any of the other things the students have a right to expect.
ReplyDeleteI understand your predicament..whenever I am working on an assignment I usually go to a local library for hours (for the quiet and lack of interruptions found at home)..My husband who is retired just shakes his head when I am spending so much time on assignments...when at home I usually just work on online discussion (or at work) if I get a few minutes here and there...
ReplyDeleteAlso, many of my friends don't understand that I don't actually have to physically "go" to class..but still spend a lot of time "in class"
Loraine