Too much of a good thing?

I realise with some sense of responsibility that if one does a google search on 'OU H800' then all our reflective blogs are listed, for the world to read about our experiences on this first iteration of the course. Plus someone might pop in and point out that with my Road to Hell lyrics, I just used a pic of the A34. Wasn't that supposed to be the M25? Well the pic communicated my feelings about bandwidth problems, and yes the A34 does happen to be pretty high up on my list of roads to hell.

We have been discussing in our forums the Michael Wesch video 'A Vision of Students Today' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

Students spending hours and hours online each day? Dis-engaged, facebooking through most of their classes, bringing their laptops but not working on class stuff? Isn't that because they have abundant, cheap bandwidth available? Perhaps too much of a good thing. Maybe being on the wrong side of a bandwidth issue does have some merits for our kids .....

Technological breakdown

This ain't no technological breakdown

Oh no, this is the road to hell....

You may have spotted I haven't been very reflective lately. When one does a completely online course, one has to rely on one's technology. It's critical to the course. If it doesn't want to play, then it truly is the road to hell. My poor PC has been going slower and slower and s-l-o-w-e-r and s--l--o--w--e----------r. On top of that, the international bandwidth from SA is really not what it should be. We have started doing speed tests and generally get a fraction of what we pay for. When it takes 40 minutes to load a 5 minute video you feel like you are in a monstrous traffic jam. And we have the highest bandwidth available in SA. I don't regret the experience though. It just brings into such sharp relief the bandwidth problems faced by most of Africa - not enough and too expensive.

Enter Alan, my trusty tutor group member on Twitter, suggesting Google Chrome as a faster browser and helping me out with it. Wow, what a speed difference. Our speed tests tell us we are generally getting about 3 times faster access, which is an enormous help. Same videos loaded in 3 minutes - felt like someone had opened up a new highway lane just for us. Thanks, Alan !!!!

Meanwhile found third PC problem - with my LCD screen. Have abandoned the PC and gone onto the laptop, usually the family games machine.......now getting time to enjoy being creative again.......

Two Blogs for different purposes

I have decided to go ahead with both my blogs for the time being - and just to be awkward, to use the OU one (only visible to other OU users) for my answers to the activities, and this Blogger one (visible to the public) for exactly what I say in my title - a reflective diary of my learning experiences. Whether this proves to be a workable format, time will tell, but so far Blogger seems like 'fun', with the ability to put include photos etc, and the OU one more utilitarian and feeling like 'work'. I don't want to mess up my fun anything goes space with activity answers but I may change that in the future!!

A Huge Morale Boost

OK OK OK so I wasn't back 'next week' it kind of got swallowed up with school hols, two SA public holiday weekends and having an awful lot to post about on Week 11. How can they put quality stuff and the digital divide in one week? :-) I care about both of these so much so I have to put my bit in again, even though I was actually planning to do a bit more real life. I'm all forumed out and very glad there isn't much of that this week. Are forums a waste of time and unproductive - or does the time that you spend on them yield rich rewards? As I said in Elluminate tonght, I don't think they've designed in sufficient time for both forums and activities on the course. It certainly doesn't feel like it; and it's a significant part of my learner experience. Talking of which, what a wonderful fabbo morale booster to be talking on Elluminate in the when-everyone-has-nearly-gone post session discussion. Loved it. Just to be talking, sharing and empathising about how tough we are finding it - and to see that others have exactly the same problems as yourself is sooooo heartening.

No pics of crocs and hippos yet, I know I said I would. Blogging to me is fun and the activities and forums have to come first. I shelved the fun part last week. Back soon......