week 1 reflection

Week 1 of Online Schooling class was very interesting. It was my first time using Moodle platform. I've been using Blackboard and Classweb, but I think Moodle is better than the other two.

As for the discussion of pros and cons of virtual school, I agreed with my classmates that although there are drawbacks, there are much more positives in using it. I sincerely believe most, if not all, schools will resort to some kind of online classes/courses in the nearest future.

About me

Hi, this is my second semester at TC and I'm looking forward to because Online Schooling is a subject that's a great interest of mine. I'm only taking a couple of classes because I'm always on a business travel and all my courses are done online. It's the best thing about online learning - that I can take the course wherever and whenever I want. The downside is that it's actually more time consuming as I'm constantly checking to see post updates and there are certain things I would like to do face to face. Additionally, asynchronous nature of the class limits the student interaction.

Over the past 7 years or so, I've gotten involved in the education industry - private sector. What I've started out in Korea has now expanded to various regions/countries including China, South America, Japan, and the US. Now, I consult for many of the Korean educational technology companies trying to expand overseas using its well designed curriculum and teaching methods. In addition, I mentor and counsel dozens of international students each year matriculating to the US colleges and boarding schools.

I'm very fascinated by how technology is shaping the world of education. From OLPC, mobile learing, game-learning ("edutainment"), and newest smartphone/netbook, I'm amazed how fast the technology is improving in education. One thing I would like to eventually see would be to have an ubiquitous learning environment with students from K-12 using a similar curriculum throughout the world.