Web 2.0

Blog note: the post timing function seems to be off… I will try to fix it, but posts have been time stamped three hours earlier than my current time zone, even though the date stamp is correct.

I have to say… web 2.0 has been instrumental in my education.  For five years, I have been a distance learner in various situations; with a college, in a university program, and even as a professional completing continuing education credits.  In fact, the only reason I am still able to be a Seminole is thanks to online learning!  As I decided to return to college, leaving central Florida was not something I wanted to do.  Giving up my career was not very tempting either; I had to decide whether I could be successful at doing and getting what was necessary through a distance learning program.  I have done so, and I have never felt as though my education is compromised or lacking in any way due to it being online.  I am consistently amazed at people who assert ‘this lab could never be online’ or ‘my course doesn’t lend itself to distance learning’.  Because I have done it; lab classes, anatomy classes, clinical experience coordination, you name it and I have done it successfully within an online course.

I have participated in classes from too many airports to count, cruise ships hopping around the Caribbean, a dockside coffee shop in Alaska, and after climbing out of the catacombs in Paris.  Let’s face it, distance learners are spoiled!  There is simply nothing in the way of learners’ ability to go after education; as long as we have the initiative, the mechanisms are out there.  Making use of web 2.0 has consistently been a huge part of my education, and I hope to learn techniques this semester that will improve my implementation of it in an effort to improve the experiences of my own students.