Reflections on Online Learning

This class has been quite an adventure for me! First of all, it's the first time ever I take an online course. This type of learning experience has been amazing so far. I am now a blogger, when I first heard that term I thought it was just for news or current event forums. Blogging is actually very entertaining and soothing. The amount of information that we have to read is quite extensive and time challenging, but I look forward to reading it every week. I must admit that sometimes, I still print lots of paper, because staring at the computer screen takes a toll on my eyes. However, the wealth of information that Prof. Schmidt shares with us is truly awesome! I have learned about so many new sites and links and video recording myself and blogging. One of my favorite learning experiences was virtual field trips! I still go on some of those sites and daydream about visiting them one day! Creating my website was a little time consuming, but I shouldn't complain cause my web quest has been keeping me up lately, but it's fun! Meeting deadlines always makes me nervous, however constant checking of blackboard keeps my mind at ease and of course I also torture our poor Prof. with constant confirming emails! ;) I would also like to add that this type of learning not only prepares us for our classroom  & our students, but for the real life scenarios where we will have to deal in the workplace. Whether you decide to stay in teaching or maybe change to administration, the tools that we have will benefit us in the future. It has been so exciting to actually share some information with the students I substitute teach and the adult students as well. Even some of the teachers ask me about any new sites or information I have learned about. I am quite lucky and blessed that a few teachers have been so open and candid with their online experiences as well. I must admit, they all love online courses and highly recommend them. I guess these classes are self paced in my opinion and you can basically participate in your virtual classroom as soon as you blog or make a comment on somebody else's blog. I'm really looking forward to one day actually having a real classroom website where students and parents can communicate with me. There is so much information available to students and parents that I would love to share. There is not enough hours in the day to explore the vast resources online with students. Learning online is a life learning skill that children and adults will always have to keep up with  as technology advances every day.