Designing Learning - My Experience with Online Learning

This entire course has taught me a whole lot of things I did not know before and never thought to accomplish in such a short time. From the start of the course it has been one road of discovery after discovery of the advantages and highlights of online learning vis-à-vis the problems and pitfalls. The info graph has been such a challenge but a welcome one at that, let alone knowing how to keep notes in an Evernote application. The Virtual school, the Flipped classroom has been yet another wonderful experience for me as a teacher and for my learners too after having taken them through one of the most interesting and engaging lesson online. Online learning requires the learner to visit wikis, webinars, blogs, podcasts, Khan Academy videos, YouTube videos and all the resource sites available on the Net. In reality, it looks like an ocean of knowledge where one would fear to venture because of the diversity of the information there. But once there, the learner will discover that it is easy to navigate through this ocean and get to the desired information in just a matter of minutes or seconds or utmost hours. And the most wonderful thing about it all is the fact that most of these sites, once you are connected to Internet, you access them free of charge.  

Advantages include;

·        Learner-centered with the teacher as a facilitator

·        Teacher's role as a monolithic node is taken away.

·        Learners can study from anywhere ie at home and in the confines of their bedrooms. 
·        No fear of being embarrassed.
·        Ability to view lesson as many times as one wishes for clarity and further perception of concepts.
·        The learners who have jobs can also find time to read and learn without worrying.
·        Tutoring is possible across continents
·        Supports the learner to take charge of their own learning and decide what they want to learn.
·        Allows learners to experience things in their own learning and construct knowledge basing on their own experiences.
·        Encourages collaboration amongst students/learners.
·        All learners are treated according to their abilities since online learning takes into account the multiple intelligences of the learners.
·        Promotes continuity of data.
·        Gives immediate feedback.
·        Does not affect the final grade.
·        Provides for an all inclusive environment.

Highlights

·        It is up to the learners to dream big in every community.
·        Be a learner and be willing to be transformed.
·        Let the learners decide what they want to learn.
·        Give the children a chance to realize themselves.
·        Ensure that children can make sense of the world, the images, the ideas, and information they are bombarded with every day.
·        Learning to accommodate the differences.
·        Understanding how TPACK's three domains of knowledge interact including the subject domains that are in actual fact essential to support effective technology integration in the learning process.
·        Use technology to humanize on a global scale what is happening in education.
Disadvantages and pitfalls include;
·        Requires a lot of time.
·        Reduces memory span.
·        Reduces the ability to think.
·        Reduces concentration since most of the time there is skimming through texts to get to what one is looking for.
·        The culture of reading is killed.
·        A sea of information that may be too much for the learner to digest all.
The disadvantages and pitfalls are minimal as compared to the advantages and highlights of online learning.  Technology allows learners to research, collaborate, create, network and present in all kinds of new ways.