Personal reflections of my own learning I have always been a distance learner. Having married and having a baby at a really young age, I continued my studies via correspondence. My first experience with distance education mirrors the first wave of distance education that I have covered in previous posts. I successfully completed my matric (yes with a little one by my side!). My undergraduate and graduate studies began with the University of South Africa (Unisa) and reflected the second and third waves of distance education - progressing along the continuum of fully offline to fully online education. So, in essence, I have a wide range of skills and capabilities in distance and online learning (take note of the distinction - online learning is a form of distance education and NOT distance education per se). Although learning new platforms and acquainting oneself with new technologies and application is somewhat daunting, my excitement overpowers my fear. This is attested in my score in the adprima preparedness test (with a score of 70). The only challenge I have with online learning, specifically in this program and the LEO environment is the navigation between multiple sites to complete a task. Additionally, some information is duplicated in the different sites and tabs (often with slightly different information). What happens then is that I cannot remember where I found certain resources! This is probably something that needs to be looked at. The OMDE601 Library Guide is very useful though. I used it to access the e-reserves for the first assignment. I need to explore the site some more in the coming weeks to find more resources for the subsequent assignments.Overall, my experience has been exciting, yet daunting; invigorating, yet exhausting. The multiple readings and interactions in various discussion forums, as well as the diverse tasks that needed to be completed has made me reflect on distance education in a way that I thought was not possible. Nonetheless, I am pleased to say that my initial definition of distance learning encompasses everything that I have learnt thus far about the evolution of distance education (although I did not think about many aspects at the time)! I cannot wait to see if my definition evolves (and if it does not, then I would like to see what traditional aspects will be covered by the concepts in my definition!) Until next week..... Online learning is one element of the distance education spectrum
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