Tools for Distance Education
I enjoyed the workshops presented this week, specifically Skype and Google Calendar and their possibilities for application in the realm of education. I also enjoyed the reading and some ideas regarding the importance of online learning focusing on the attainment of new skills or applied knowledge, as well as the benefits of keeping online learning approaches clean, well-organized, and minimalistic (to keep a focus on what is most important).
My own apprehensions and concerns at times with online learning and its many associated tools (which have so many great benefits) are the subsequent feelings of a cluttered computer desktop, browser, and mind. It is of utmost importance to keep organized and to have clear objectives and expectations when engaging in a new learning situation. Sometimes I feel as though the too varied or overuse of different tools in different learning situations can create a feeling of clutter because one tool leads you to another tool, and another tool remedies the issues of that tool and so on and so forth until it is utterly too easy to get distracted in the endless process of multi-tasking.
How can we de-clutter and de-fragment, standardizing certain aspects of systems and tools used while still allowing the freedom and creativity for each teacher’s unique approach? …I feel like some information gets buried, and the time spent to track down that information or to familiarize ones’ self with the protocol of the technology required for an individual course could be minimized in a positive way.
