Being a Distance Learner

05Mar10

This week I started a wholly distance learning course – an MEd in e-learning.  One of the main reasons I decided to do the course was to get a stronger understanding of the pedagogical issues and challenges for teachers when using online tools.  That’s important for me because I work as a learning technologist, helping teachers find ways to enhance their teaching using technology.  But, the course also has a secondary purpose; to give me the chance to understand what it’s like as a learner, the challenges and drawbacks of the process, as well as the positive aspects.  I’ve never done a distance learning course before, so I don’t really know what it feels like.  I’m hoping to post something here from time-to-time with my thoughts and feelings on the course so far (though I may be busy sometimes finishing assignments!), probably in the form of one or two positive things, and one or two difficulties.

We’re only in the introductory week so far, so our activities have been based on getting to know the tools within the VLE that’s used to deliver the course.  We’ve sent emails, posted an ‘about me’ item on discussion lists, and started a blog.  This is a useful exercise, and helps us find out what sort of things we can do with the tools available.  So, I guess that’s my positive thing for this week.

Now, for the negative – well, my initial feeling is one of strong disconnect.  I don’t feel it will be very easy to get to ‘know’ any of my fellow students (or, indeed, my tutor); there’s not too much you can glean from each person’s own introduction since, at this stage at least, their responses seem rather formal.  Whereas in person you can infer some things based on a person’s manner of speaking, and body language, you can’t do that online.  I’ll be interested to see if we ‘loosen up’ a bit as we start to work together more as a group.

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