Distance Learning

I am sometimes amazed at how far technology has actually taken us. For me, I could not have gotten my masters degree without distance learning. I finished my M.ed and never even saw the campus. It is amazing the relationships you can build just by using online tools such as blogs, wikis, or educational tools such as moodle or blackboard. I even had one teacher teach the entire class via a wiki (Thank you Jeff Utecht) and it was amazing. We got to chat when needed, see revisions in real time and all of our projects were listed with clear directions. With email being more relevant than telephone we were able to use that medium as well. Skype was also very helpful. When I took the class, we had arranged times to talk on skype to touch base and have questions answered. I am a true believer in distance education and wonder how well it would work out for say, middle school students. What traits would they need be good distant learners? Just a thought..

Just When I Thought I Was a True Web 2.0 User

I find myself realizing that I still rely on my old habits, my old ways of doing things. I still create my documents in word, and my spreadsheets in excel, directly on my laptop. I have 40 page paper's due for some of my master's classes yet, I keep them on a hard drive, safe and sound. So while I love to blog, love my wiki and am constantly playing with 2.0 tools, I am not always using them in the way they were meant to be used. I wonder if anyone else claiming to love 2.0 can say the same... I find myself, with a laptop that is not my own, and a 20 page paper due in two days, I'm just waiting around, could be working on my edits, BUT, did I put in on the one of google's coolest tools, Google Docs, No, I did not, so I sit here waiting and wishing I had saved my paper to my usb port. Again, I'm not realizing the potential. I promise in the future to do what I preach, use web 2.0 technology to it's fullest abilities! Iwill post my paper to Google Docs and I will use my del.icio.us account and stop using the bookmark tab. Confessions of a web 2.0 user :)