Welcome to the distance learning site. Learning is a favourite topic of mine and I have enjoyed learning since I was very young. I remember thinking it was fun to learn to count before I went to school. I always liked to go to school, although when I was a teenager, I know I often placed social activities a notch above my learning activities. However, schools are social places so the two could be combined quite well! I still enjoy learning today and actually start to feel quite restless if I’m not working at learning something in at least a couple of areas of my life. Now I will be learning a new job as editor of this distance learning site. I am also studying Spanish at the present time. I do consider myself to be a lifelong learner, which I believe is a necessity for everybody in today’s world, and distance learning is one way to continue learning throughout one’s life.
As well as my enjoyment of learning, I have always enjoyed helping other people to learn. So I went to Teacher’s College after high school and then went to university. I taught for a short while and then went into the social service field where, although it wasn’t a teaching job, I always considered the work I was doing as a type of teaching – that of helping people to learn how to solve problems for themselves so that they wouldn’t need my services.
Upon moving to a small community north of Lake Superior with my family, I was very isolated from higher educational institutions. That is when I first became interested in distance learning. Therefore, most of my perspective on distance learning is as a distance learner. I have studied individual university courses using correspondence courses sent out by mail, individual college courses using one-way video conferencing, and completed two certificate courses completely online since moving to this community. Meanwhile, on my job I began to do training as one part of my responsibilities. That training was not by distance except for the follow-up if needed, which was done by telephone. I have also been doing some one-on-one distance tutoring using Skype for teaching English as a second language.
I plan to provide helpful information to both students and teachers who are using distance learning. Students often have questions about how to decide between bricks and mortar schools and distance learning, whether they need special equipment such as computers, and whether the distance degrees are accepted by employers and/or for higher education degrees. Busy people with jobs and/or families want to know how they can fit more education into their schedules. Teachers want to know how they can better help their students, what the best tools are for teaching by distance, and how to best assess their students’ work in distance courses. I hope that I will be able to help answer many of these questions and more on this site. Remember though, that learning is a two way communication so do communicate your needs and wishes.


Submit a Comment - Suggestion - Request to this Editor

Email Address:
Comment:

If you're commenting on an article, be sure to say which one! Otherwise the editor won't know which article you are discussing.

NOTE: If you want a response, please make sure to include your email address so we can write back. Also, make sure that any anti-spam blockers you have are set up to allow mail from bellaonline.com! Otherwise our response won't be able to get to you.