Distance learning: how it is easy, how it is not

Since it's about the middle of the semester, at least according to my syllabi and to people I know at other schools who have fall breaks, I've decided to do a couple of mid-semester inventories. This will be about the distance learning experience, which is entirely new to me.

What do I like about it? At Syracuse, courses are taught in an asynchronous format, which was a great selling point to me, because it means I don't have to be at the computer at any particular time. (If I take an online course from another school through WISE later in my program, which is certainly a possibility, I will have to conform to the requirements of whatever school offers the course, so this might be different in the future, at least for a semester.) This was a huge selling point of the iSchool for me; I have a two-year-old daughter and I do most of the childcare in our family, at least for the time being, so I appreciate the flexible schedule. I particularly like the asynchronous format of discussions, because I can give more time to formulating my contributions and considering those of my classmates than I would in a traditional class, and this gives quiet people such as myself an opportunity to speak (or write) more. Nobody sits in the front or back of the classroom, and while I can go a day or two without posting, I know my absence will be noticed. I've also found my instructors engaging and accessible, and assignments are well thought out--I've spent a lot of hands-on time at my local libraries, both public and academic, observing librarians for reference and examining books for information organization.

What's hard? Well, time management is paramount, and it's always been a skill I need to improve; it's easy to go a day or two without getting anything done when real life intervenes, and nobody I see in my daily life is involved enough with my coursework, as on-campus classmates would be, to remind me about the project that's due next Tuesday. It is also, I am not going to lie, really a challenge with a kid. I know I'm not the only one in this situation by any means, and thank goodness my primary responsibility outside of school is child care and I don't have a paying job on top of that (wow, gratitude for no income!), but two-year-olds require a lot of attention and mine is no exception. So I do most of my work during naps and after bedtime, and during those times when my wonderful and helpful husband watches her for an afternoon so I can go to the library and work or interview a real live librarian. I am feeling this out as I go along, and so far I've managed to do my work, if barely, without additional child care. I am really looking forward to preschool next year, I can tell you that.

My last post was about the NYLA conference, which I'm really glad I attended, and I think I'll really need to attend conferences or SU events periodically (fortunately I am well enough positioned, geographically, to do so), in order to have real-life contact with other library students and librarians and concentrate exclusively on librarianship for at least a short period. Distance learning, augmented by social networking, has proven to be a lot more personal than I had expected, but it is still really nice to be around other like-minded adults once in a while, and of course the long-term plan is that I will be around them every day!