Cons for today

After a grueling week of travel for work, I am feeling completely beat down and ready to list some negatives or "cons" related to distance learning.

1) Convenience-yes, I listed this as a pro but sometimes convenience turns into a con. While traveling, I thought how great it was that I could log in to my class and keep up with my school work. Well, the rigors of online learning do not lend to less amounts of homework during the week. I was able to get online, check my email and post to a few discussion threads but I was unable to focus and spend the time I wanted on my homework. The course schedule is very packed and leaves little wiggle room for a few days off task.
2) Text Books-I love my text book and reading "printed" items versus online materials. The bummer is when you travel, lugging along 2-4 books is not always an option. It would be nice if my school provided both versions-online with the option to print or a custom textbook with only the readings we need.
3) Ambiguity-working in a virtual company has taught me many lessons related to virtual communication. Online learning is difficult because sometimes the simplest questions take several rounds of emails to finally clarify themselves....and then you still wonder if you were understood or understood the other person correctly. Face to face has certain values that are hard to replace no matter how tech savvy the platform or the users are.

A few comments were made to my initial post about the lack of technology my school uses. I agree that audio and more visual stimulation would be nice. I will travel down this road in the near future!

Until then...Miss Negative needs some caffeine to get some homework done!