Introduction
Susan
Connell
EDTEC 650
Fall 2004
Interest
in Distance Education
In
my work as well as my personal life, I have always been
fascinated by technology because of the opportunities that
it offers to enhance communication and improve productivity.
For the past 20+ years, I have had a career in various aspects
of high-tech marketing and have enjoyed the chance to use
emerging technologies - from desktop publishing to the Internet
to video conferencing to digital video - to communicate
information relating to products, services and sales training.
My early adoption of many of these technologies led one
magazine editor to describe me as an “unabashed technophile” in
an article he wrote about my desktop publishing endeavors
way back in the mid-1980s.
However, after many years marketing widgets, I felt that
it might be time to engage in some type of work that could
be more satisfying and hopefully, less cutthroat. When I learned
about the disciplines of Educational Technology and Distance
Education, I thought that this might be an area where I could
channel my interests in technology in a more beneficial manner.
Ultimately,
I would like to “retire” from my
marketing career and find post-retirement work as an instructor,
instructional designer or manager/facilitator for instructional
technology in an adult education setting such as a community
college, online university program or even a corporate training
environment. Although I would prefer to work as an employee,
I would also consider working as a consultant or contractor.
One of the aspects that especially appeals to me about Distance
Education specifically has to do with the concept of working
independent of location. I have always loved to travel and
would like to be able to have a profession that I could practice
from virtually anywhere – or through which I could share
different parts of the world with students. I have thus far
completed seven courses towards the EDTEC Masters, and would
not have been able to do that without the ability to work
at distances ranging from North San Diego County to the East
Coast to Central America to Europe (and I’m hoping for
trips to South American and Asia before I graduate!).
Because
my personal style involves an odd dichotomy of disorganized
organization, I work best in a flexibly structured environment
that probably places me midway up the structure scale. While
I like to have deadlines to keep focused, I also need flexibility
to be able to juggle some of the priorities of paying clients
who aren’t terribly sympathetic or supportive about
the demands of my schoolwork. And while I like the flexibility
afforded by working independently, I have also enjoyed the
synchronous chats and most of the collaborative projects in
some of the classes I have taken so far as they seem to cultivate
a sense of community.
Although I have not yet selected a topic to explore for this
class, I am interested in some of the international perspectives
relating to distance education as well as aspects exploring
different audiences and types of learners.
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