Module 1 Blog Post

Good news, I survived Chapter 2!
This module we had to read a series of three different journal articles written by our own amazingly talented Dr. Moller and his counterparts Huett, Foshay, and Coleman. I was really impressed by these articles. When I first decided that I wanted to become an educational technologist I really thought that meant that I would become the know it all of programs and how to use them. I never realized or understood how much a part of being an educational technolgist revolved around online learning. But now that I am getting further and further into the program I am realizing how interested I am in online learning. This is AWESOME! I finally feel like I know what I want to be when I grow up.
I have to say I found the articles for this week to be very interesting and thought provoking. Here are some of the thoughts that I had as I read through the three articles:
Article 1:
I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this article and agreed with the opinions that it represented. The quote that had a lasting impact on me was "The challenge for ID professionals is not only to evolve the field, but also to assure that the products of sound professional design practice lead the elearning enterprise." I thought this quote was extremely represenative of the job that instructional designers and educational technologist have to accomplish when designing curriculum and technology for online learners. Having the right balance is key to a learners success in an e-learning environment. The other piece of information that I completely agree with was the idea that the ROI (Return on Investment) must be impressive in order for a technology to be worth the investment. And lets face it, in education the real return of investment is not money, it is learning, and when learning is occuring the technology is worth the time and expense.
Article 2:
After reading article 2 I had to agree with the opinions that were expressed for I found myself reflecting the reasons for my choice of becoming an online learner. While I was scared to try the online learning environment because I am such a face-to-face learner the benefits of becoming an online learner far outwayed the fears I may have had. The other idea that I found myself agreeing with was the opinion of online learning being too personally consuming. I have found in the last four months I am constantly thinking, reading, or working on assignments for this program, not that I didn't expect ot be busy, but my goodness I didn't realize it would take over my life the way it has, for I never know if I am doing enough on my assignments, and I don't have any comparisons to make with other people's work so I constantly feel like I don't know what I am doing, which is not a fun feeling for me. But hopefully I will work this out in my head before I drown trying to finish!
Article 3:
I was surprised to see negative effects of online learning in this article. I guess I just hadn't really thought about the down sides of elearning for younger students, but it was nice to have the cons presented to me in such a matter of fact manner. I tend to agree that regular high schools don't work for all students, but I was faced with the fact that neither will online learning today and I have to agree with that too. For not all students can handle the lack of social interaction and the negative effects of no social interaction. I found myself thinking of a world where everybody was the stereotypical computer geek with no social interaction skills and was terrified, but it is all about finding the balance of education and what will work for one, may not be right for another.
Big week everyone! Buck up and we can do it! Good luck

Kassidy