Reflection
OMDE 606 - Cost and Economics of Distance Education
Elixir or Snake Oil
The class opened with a role debate on "Education: Elixir or Snake Oil" where we were placed on two sides of the fence: pro or con. This was an interesting opener and turned out some sound arguments for either side and some very provoking responses from the professor to keep the debate going. The module focused on the emergence of economics in education arguing whether or not education is a good thing. I was placed on the side of the Pros and argued that education does in fact yield a high rate of return on individuals and society; personal satisfaction for the individual promoting a higher standard of living and social well-being. There was much discussion about why we should invest in higher education. Is it worth it? How many are in seemingly dead-end jobs are stuck with education loans for degree programs they never did complete? I am personally beginning to question my own decisions where higher education is concerned. But then again, that could very well be because I seem to be going in a backwards direction; completing an MEd and now struggling to become teacher-certified.
A Horrible Semester
It would be an understatement to say that this was a challenging semester for me; it was a horrible semester. I was totally entrenched in work, illnesses times over, lack of sleep and worse of all, I fell behind in my class. I realized it was next to impossible to play catch up in this class, still continue my other class and deal with all the other challenges I was faced with. I had to finally make the awful decision to withdraw from the course. By this time we were already placed in groups and were suppose to be working on our costing scenario. I had a hard time writing to inform my group members and the professor; I'm not a quitter. Thankfully, the professor possess the level of empathy that is so important in distant education and as such was gracious enough to go above and beyond to afford me the time to catch up and get back in the game. Unfortunately this meant I had missed some very meaningful and deep discussions but I used some time to just catch up on reading the topics and responses but in most cases, did not comment. Ironically this placed even more pressure on me to get the assignments done and I am not strong in all these accounting/economics terminologies and formulas so I was intimidated to say the least. As such, it took me a little longer ( I believe) to figure it out.
Collaboration
Our study group got off to a late start in getting the project started mainly because we could not get on the same page with finding a time to meet to make some sort of plan. Finally someone made a move and it took off from there. There were times when it appeared really choppy but in the end it all came together and we pulled it off. This was a fairly small group with great teamwork among the members but admittedly I feel like we cut it really close and had to really gett cracking at the very last minute. In the end however, it was a successful make-up. It just proved again how challenging it can be to work and collaborate in the DE environment.
The class opened with a role debate on "Education: Elixir or Snake Oil" where we were placed on two sides of the fence: pro or con. This was an interesting opener and turned out some sound arguments for either side and some very provoking responses from the professor to keep the debate going. The module focused on the emergence of economics in education arguing whether or not education is a good thing. I was placed on the side of the Pros and argued that education does in fact yield a high rate of return on individuals and society; personal satisfaction for the individual promoting a higher standard of living and social well-being. There was much discussion about why we should invest in higher education. Is it worth it? How many are in seemingly dead-end jobs are stuck with education loans for degree programs they never did complete? I am personally beginning to question my own decisions where higher education is concerned. But then again, that could very well be because I seem to be going in a backwards direction; completing an MEd and now struggling to become teacher-certified.
A Horrible Semester
It would be an understatement to say that this was a challenging semester for me; it was a horrible semester. I was totally entrenched in work, illnesses times over, lack of sleep and worse of all, I fell behind in my class. I realized it was next to impossible to play catch up in this class, still continue my other class and deal with all the other challenges I was faced with. I had to finally make the awful decision to withdraw from the course. By this time we were already placed in groups and were suppose to be working on our costing scenario. I had a hard time writing to inform my group members and the professor; I'm not a quitter. Thankfully, the professor possess the level of empathy that is so important in distant education and as such was gracious enough to go above and beyond to afford me the time to catch up and get back in the game. Unfortunately this meant I had missed some very meaningful and deep discussions but I used some time to just catch up on reading the topics and responses but in most cases, did not comment. Ironically this placed even more pressure on me to get the assignments done and I am not strong in all these accounting/economics terminologies and formulas so I was intimidated to say the least. As such, it took me a little longer ( I believe) to figure it out.
Collaboration
Our study group got off to a late start in getting the project started mainly because we could not get on the same page with finding a time to meet to make some sort of plan. Finally someone made a move and it took off from there. There were times when it appeared really choppy but in the end it all came together and we pulled it off. This was a fairly small group with great teamwork among the members but admittedly I feel like we cut it really close and had to really gett cracking at the very last minute. In the end however, it was a successful make-up. It just proved again how challenging it can be to work and collaborate in the DE environment.