Journal 1 for EDT 547

Dear Mary,

What is going well in the course:
I feel our first group meeting this week went well. We had a little tech trouble at the beginning, but were able to figure it out for the most part. It was also really helpful that you already had the Elluminate rooms set up for us. It made Elluminate really easy to access. I think it will be really nice to have the support of the group for the rest of the semester.

What is going not so well in the course:
The Scholarly Writing Assignment has put me in a bit of a panic all week. I feel like I have put hours and hours and hours into it, and I'm not even sure if I did it correctly. I am not a natural writer, so writing this research paper was very difficult and time consuming for me. It doesn't help that I have another very similar paper due for my 567 class today as well. Needless to say, it's a little overwhelming.

I also feel like way too much is due this week. We have 3 rather large assignments, 2 chapters with responses, and this journal all due on the same day. It is just way too much. I haven't left my computer all week trying to keep up with it all. I realize we've had 3 weeks to work on the paper and such, but I would much rather have been given less time to do some of the other assignments so at least they were out of the way.

Your frustrations:
Vista still frustrates me a bit. I'm really annoyed that you can't have more than one part of it opened at at time, i.e. I can't have the module one assignments open in one tab and the discussion board in another. I feel like I waste so much time going back and forth. It also seems to be a heavy program and bogs down my computer, which just makes the navigation even more frustrating. I know you have no control over this, so sorry for ranting. :)

Your accomplishments:
Getting all of today's assignments in by midnight will be a huge accomplishment! Fingers crossed.

Your life as an online learner:
I'm on the fence right now about whether an online program was the right choice for me. I miss people! I miss talking with people and not having to type everything. I think I will probably never take more than one online class per semester again. I will take the others wherever they are offered locally.

Have a beautiful week.

Niecy