Technology in my education

For this blog I am going to talk about how communication technology has played a role in my education and whether or not it has helped my education.  I'm going to start off by saying I have no clue how I would have made it this far in my education without communication technology.  I am one that loves most online classes.  If fact, this is the first semester I haven't taken an online course since I went back to school.  I love the flexibility that comes with it and studying when it is best for me instead of at a set time.  I was able to stay in school through pregnancy and having a baby because I was enrolled in online classes.  I even took an exam while I was in labor because I had the time to kill.  While I love online classes, it does have its downfalls too.  You have to be real good at time management or you could easily fall behind.  You also have to be adamant on checking your class to make sure you don't miss anything.  It is also more expensive to take online classes so that is a big downfall.  I don't blame the schools since they have to make money in order to function. 
There are other ways I use communication technologies in my education.  Just tonight while studying for an exam, I had my powerpoints on my laptop, my book on my tablet, and was emailing and texting classmates about the exam at the same time since we couldn't meet for a study group.  It really helps with multitasking if you have the right devices and enough of them.  One of my favorite things are my e-books.  Imagine my excitement when I found out I could rent my textbooks as e-books for next to nothing.  My books on campus this semester would have cost me well over $800 but thanks to renting e-books I didn't pay more than $200 total for ALL my school supplies, not just my books.  It is an awesome way students can pinch on some money.   I have only had one teacher since 2008 say anything about my e-book and that was only because she hadn't taught in over 20 years.  She said she didn't realize how advanced technology had gotten and ended up liking the e-book option.  When accessing my e-books I can instantly look up words I may not know with the push of one button which allows material to be read quickly and smoothly.  I can also take notes right on the page of the book, highlight, and print anything I may need.  I just purchased the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and it was by far the best thing I have ever purchased for school.  It is amazing how much it has helped me.  I can fill in powerpoints by writing on my tablet and then print it out when I come home.  In one of my classes we have to watch a bunch of movies on our own time so I am able to rent it on my tablet cheaply and watch it anywhere even without wifi.  When I have to do research all I have to do is take out my phone and the whole world is at my fingertips.  I can do everything I want and need to do on just my phone.  Amazing!  I have had many teachers use different websites for classes.  My favorite was a music history class that used youtube to show videos of the music we were learning about.  I do feel that technology has improved the quality of my education, I also feel it has somewhat hurt it too.  It is very easy to get distracted while you are trying to study.  You can open as many internet browsers you want and have any social networks and chats open to keep you off track.  It can make you lazy in your studies.  I can access many libraries and other research tools from my house and while this may sound convenient, it may not help the information stick in your mind as well as actually going to the library, looking up what you need to find,  and writing it out on paper.  Another thing I don't enjoy about communication technology is how it is constant.  When you take classes on campus your mind can rest when you leave the classroom.  I can access all my school material on the go which means it is constantly on my mind.  I am the worse about checking my blackboard every 20 minutes even though I get notifications when something is posted.  I feel like I always have my nose in some form of technology. 
I had never heard of Massive Open Online Courses, but have a good feeling I'll be checking some out.  Anything to possibly better my education and my future I will try, especially if it is free.  I think it would be a great to test whether or not you like a particular area of study without having to pay for it or waste a full semester of your time.  I'm going to see what kind of business classes I can find on it next summer.