Being a fellow "techy", I can definitely say that technology has had a vital impact on my life and my education. Sitting in class hearing a lecture is often difficult to me because I become bored easily and lose interest. During my third year of college, I discovered distance education and changed up my way of learning completely. I began checking for my required courses and seeing if distance education was an option. When it was, those sections were the ones that I chose. I wasn’t a fan of having to watch videos and what not, so once I was able to work with an interface such as BlackBoard and WebCT, I was sold that distance education was definitely the way to go for me. My life is very busy, so having the power to interact and get the same end result with an online environment helps me meet my needs without being stressed with cramming travel to and from campus into my schedule.
When it comes to education, I think that working collaboratively with groups should be a requirement. It allows students to interact with others, gain new perspectives on particular topics and also creates a better understanding through courses. Another plus to having students collaborate is that it is very relatable to the real world since we constantly have to interact at work and throughout our everyday lives. Through teaching and learning I have also learned the importance of pacing and setting deadlines. This allows the student and the teacher to progress through the curriculum smoothly and prevents a huge back up of assignments at the end of the course. I have seen the importance of connectivism lately in my course work thanks to networking with others through social media and other mediums. I have been able to learn many new things from connecting with others and have found that I can often talk with other classmates to get answers rather than having to contact the instructor in many cases.
