Week 11 of my MOOCs indulgence—yes it is now an indulgence,
I am addicted to education. The
other night, my family entered the darkened kitchen where I sat focused on a
talking head on the computer screen in front of me while I simultaneously typed
in trial bits of code.
“Are we having dinner tonight mom?”
Really? Was it
time for dinner already? But I had
just sat down after lunch to watch a quick lecture and get caught up on one
class. I felt transported back to
college days when I stayed up all night coding for the thrill of getting a
program to compile and if I were lucky to actually spit out the correct
answers, all formatted correctly before dawn broke. Had I really returned to that lifestyle? Clearly my focus on Coursera (my MOOC
of choice at the moment) had gone too far.
After throwing together dinner of some sort, I returned to
my on-line class. I went to the
home page and looked at the big green button beckoning “Go to class”. In small type, nearly hidden below it,
I read ‘Un-enroll’. I hovered my
cursor over “Go to class”, then with a sigh, moved to “Un-enroll” and clicked. A big red button filled my vision as if
shouting at me, no don’t un-enroll, you’ll lose everything! I calmly confirmed my exit, my retreat,
my departure; with a sigh I un-enrolled.
I returned to my course listing and smiled—4 big green “Go
to class” buttons remained—still plenty of learning to do, quizzes to take,
discussion forums to participate in.
My on-line learning appetite is not quite curbed, I’ll just focus on
less consuming courses.
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