Community of Experience

The idea of online or distance education has caught on quite well. Most major universities have some form of distance learning available to students. The typical online learner has changed quite a bit. For a long time, the typical online student was an older student who had decided to come back to school. Now, even students right out of high school have started to take online courses in conjunction with their classroom instruction. You can even find schools that specialize in distance education. But one of the great things about the internet, is that eventually advocate groups for just about everything will appear. This is no different for distance education.

A great blog for distance learners is The Elearners News Blog. The Elearners News Blog is, at first glance, a great place to find random writings about some very useful subjects regarding distance learning. Take for instance a piece called "New Technology to Spot Plagiarism in College Papers." This article talks about how, in such an advanced tech age, the line between originality and using the thoughts of another is often blurred. According to the author, DeLucianal, "In a New York Times article published earlier this month, journalist Trip Gabriel discusses a trend in higher education today in which students not only copy and paste directly from content found on the web, they don't even think they're committing plagiarism" (DeLucianal). The article goes on to explain how universities have been using technology to crack down on the plagiarism issue.

Or, how about the blog post titled "University Webinar on August 25th!" This is an example of how the blog is using the post as a broadcast reminder to students who follow the blog. The idea here is to bring information to the online student as efficiently as possible.

As you can see from these two examples from the same blog, there is a river of experience that is being brought forward for you to swim in. In one place, the creator of this blog brings experiences as well as well-timed reminders to your fingertips, but only if you follow their work. The blogs are out there, and they can ease the pain of learning as long as you are willing to seek them out. Who knows, maybe one day you can ad your experiences to the community.

References:
The Elearners News Blog

DeLucianal. "New Technology to Spot Plagiarism in College Papers". The Elearners News Blog

DeLucianal. "Kaplan University Webinar August 25th!". The Elearners News Blog

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Online learning is a great way for working people to continue their education. Great corporate learning solutions are available for everyone not just students.

Unknown said...

I applaud the online learners. I have found online learning quite difficult. I love the classroom setting and get more from the other student's expressions. Bravo to you that can do the online way of learning.