Having earned my MAEd in Teaching and Instruction through and online program, therefore, I have a considerable amount of experience learning online. It took me 3 years to complete my program.
One of my favorite parts of taking my graduate studies online was the flexibility. Having 4 young, active children and working full-time as an elementary school teacher, left very little time in my day. When my babies were quietly tucked away into bed, I was able to unwind and put a different part of my brain into gear. It was exciting, fun, exhausting, frustrating, enlightening and it allowed me to have intellectual conversations with other adults, about something that I am passionate about. I like to say that it gave me an opportunity to get the cobwebs off my brain. The continuous threaded discussions were my favorite. Here were other educators, that I'd never met, sharing wonderful ideas with me, and I with them. They were from all over the country, but they had some of the same issues in the classroom and we tried to help each other through the thought process.
Reading the many articles, journals and other required assignments also encouraged me to look beyond my personal experiences and see things in a different way. I realized that I didn't know everything, not that I really thought that I had, but I began to learn "what" I didn't really know. I found resources and tools that I didn't know existed.
I believe my favorite part of online learning is listening to people that seem so far away and so far removed from me physically, sharing so much in common. I appreciate their outlooks and how they approach and solve problems. Sometimes, specifically in education, school systems, districts, counties or maybe just the school were you work, gets hyper-focused on the latest thing. That sometimes causes us to miss all the other great resources, tools and opportunities that are opening up to us and our students. That's why having conversations with educators all across the country, and potentially the world, opens the mind and increases the possibilities.....for anything.
