“Steal this document, with my compliments.” — David Pogue
Recently an attentive reader who is aware of how pressed I am for time (okay, fine, it was my Mom) suggested I read this article on personal productivity by David Pogue, who blogs about technology for the New York Times. In it, he lists a number of things that he does that helps him get a lot done even though there are only twenty-four hours in a day (minus the five or six we waste on sleep). I began to think about how many of his suggestions would be of particular interest to distance learning students. His first thought definitely applies to us: he explains that by working from home he saves several hours a day by not having to commute. Distance learners don't have to drive to school, and don't have to circle the parking lot there in a frantic search for a space, so that's already a noticeable savings of time.
He had two other more technological suggestions that I found particularly intriguing. The first is that he uses typing expansion software. These free downloads let you designate abbreviations for various long words or phrases that you use frequently. Distance learners who write a lot of papers on similar topics may be able to make a lot of use for something like this. Imagine if you're a Criminal Justice student, for example, and instead of having to type "asset forfeiture" you can just type "af" and the phrase is instantly substituted! By adding abbreviations even for just the top twenty or so phrases that you type over and over again, you could save a noticeable amount of time.
Another suggestion that I found interesting was to get rid of typing altogether. Pogue uses something called dictation software, specifically a software application called Dragon NaturallySpeaking. How convenient would it be to be able to speak into a microphone and have the words appear right in the document that you're writing? That's what this sort of application can do. It's definitely something I'm going to look into more closely, because I'm an okay typist, but like most people I can speak far more quickly than I can type. When it comes to this, my first thought was how much faster I'd be able to write my term papers and my dissertation, but then it also occurred to me that since class discussion is through discussion boards, I'd be able to do twice the participation in the same amount of time. The drawbacks are that it costs a hundred bucks and it only runs on Windows. (They have a similar product for Macs, but it's two hundred bucks!)
So these are things I think are at least worth considering, even the one that costs some money. I figure that even if these products only save one or two hours a week, that would still be pretty exciting for me. Thanks, Mom!
Next up, an analysis from the U.S. Department of Education shows online learning is more effective than the classroom.