This week in class we explored distributed learning. This class differed from most because it involved a lot of interactive activities, and collaborative brainstorming which I thought was unique!

We looked at a few different topics and put in our own ideas and ideas that we formulated in small groups.

One topic was to brainstorm ideas capturing our experiences of both the positive and negative aspects of learning online. I liked that we started out with this because it allowed us to express all of our frustrations that we’re all experiencing from online learning, as well as what was really enjoying about having our classes be completely remote. Some common themes for positives were that online learning completely cuts out the commute for everyone. I personally do not have an issue with commuting to campus as I live fairly close, but for my fellow classmates that live far away and have to endure daily traffic-filled drives, or those who stayed in a different city besides where our campus is. However, I noticed there was an overwhelming amount of negatives. I think that all of us, including those who are outside of our program and cohort, are feeling that online learning has become much more intense than in-person/face-to-face classes. I personally noticed that I am becoming increasingly more exhausted from staring at my laptop all day, so I ended up buying blue light glasses. However, while many of us are struggling with this, blue light glasses are not something that everyone has access to or can afford, so I think the amount of screen time we have to have is a big issue too. 

I think these activities were really nice for us as students to connect and relate to each other with our experiences with online learning, especially since this is new to so many of us, as well as allowing our professor to see our thoughts and feelings for feed back in not only their class but also in other professors classes.