Gotcha. What a great title. One of the things that appealed to me the most about this week's article that we read was the idea of how to deal with distractions when taking an online course. I'm starting to realize the temptation to work on lesson plans for school, catch up on email with friends and family, and work on projects that will make me money is strong while I'm tuning in to Centra sessions, clicking "yes" and "no" to questions, and voicing my pleasure or displeasure during class with a blinking smiley face. As I continued to think about it, I came to one conclusion. I would have failed high school had it been online. But, that's not the fault of the instructor, the lesson, the content, or the way in which it is presented, in this case, online.
The fault lies with me, the learner and being able to discipline myself not to pay bills, chase my son around the living room without breaking my neck on a Thomas the Tank Engine, and dutifully say, "Yes, Dear," to my wife when she asks me to come upstairs for "just a second." (yeah, right) I consider myself an above average learner with a good work ethic, but since this is my first online course I have ever taken, I can see one of the things that always allowed me to do that has been the presence of an instructor peering over my shoulder checking on my progress. This has all been quite depressing when I realized I'm no better than the middle schoolers I teach who instantly shut off when I turn my back on them.
All of this has been a completely unnecessary preface to this link--an article that shares the same title as my posting.
http://www.management-issues.com/2007/12/5/research/e-learning-is-a-boring-distraction.asp
I thought the article was interesting in that it showed online instruction causes the same kinds of obstacles in the workplace. It discusses, in brief, alot of the same issues: loss of human touch, unwillingness to engage in online instruction, reluctance to use online instruction effectively, all of which are relevant concerns when dealing with eLearning.
Being that this is my first experience with online instruction, I do enjoy it in spite of all the distractions, but it does require a learner, at least in my case, to make some changes and exert more self-control that would not be necessary for me in a traditional classroom environment. Change is good and sometimes needed, but my question, as a secondary school educator, is can my students handle implementing those needed changes in order to be successful? This is just one question I have about applying what I'm learning in this course and trying to apply it to my teaching.
Just to clear things up though. I do not think it is a boring distraction. Ok? Dr. Nicholson? :)
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2 comments:
I must say, you certainly did get my attention with your title!
You described wonderfully the distractions we all face when working in an online course, and how important it is to stay focused and on task. I will say, as an instructor it's easier to stay focused in Centra because I have more buttons to click besides the "green check".
Even I get tired of saying the phrase all the time! :)
Cheers, Dr. N
I agree the title is what got me to read.
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