Blog Post #9

  Being a distanced learner has definitely not been how I thought it was going to be. Moving to mostly online learning has completely changed how I view education and learning at the college level. While most of the workload and assignments have remained the same but a lot of the motivation is gone. The motivation that I had to complete assignments before class and be motivated to be an active participant has dissipated greatly. While I considered myself a very involved student who takes her classes seriously I find it hard to keep this up with distance learning. I hate the platforms we use for an online discussion and I feel like students just are not connecting anymore. When I am a teacher one thing I will do to help improve distance learning is to have a more interactive classroom. There needs to be more conversations and discussions to keep the social aspect of learning so many students need. 

Open educational resources are exactly what they sound like. They are materials that are used in classes that are open for everyone to use. Textbooks and databases can be very expensive for students to gain access to but with these kinds of materials, there is no barrier for the students. An example of an open educational resource is Khan Academy. They are a free online tool for students to better understand concepts and new material in the classroom. On this platform, there are thousands of topics in dozens of different classes and will give an in-depth

dive to strengthen students' understanding. If a student cannot afford to tutor using platforms like Khan Academy is a great free resource to help students. 

Working on assignments four and five I have had to put on my learning cap to learn and understand the many features of PowerPoint. From simple things like using smart art or to harder things like transitions I had to relearn a platform I thought I knew how to use. One thing I do not like about PowerPoint is how tedious it is. Things like transitions and phasing in and outlook really great in the end product but doing it for each page is not exactly fun. I think for the next project I will spend a little more time learning about the features before I start the assignment. What I do like however is PowerPoint makes it very easy to organize material and the speaker notes are great for the presentation.