Online Learning Discipline

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Photo credit: online pic from Gallaudet University, Washington.

During the pandemic, Carleton University in Ottawa, the University of Winnipeg and other institutions 'taught’ students remotely, online. They are back in class with their backpacks this 2022-2023 academic year since most pandemic restrictions are lifted.

However, remote or long distance learning is not new. There are millions of people who never sat in a college lecture hall with other students and listened to professors, but they have college and university degrees.

This requires discipline. That is why I have utmost respect for them because I’m having problems with learning sign language. Discipline is elusive. There are too many distractions online. In a formal class, I would watch the sign language instructor for, let’s say 30 or 40 minutes. No interruption.

With online classes, I get distracted by ads every 30 seconds and also ideas bubbling in my head, flagging possible blogs. I cannot ignore them because I lose blog material if I don’t write it down. That is how I leave my Signing With Omar classes hanging.

I have a routine to inculcate discipline. For example, I watch the classes in the morning for an hour. Preparing the blog is next thing on the agenda, but blog ideas are very selfish because they intrude into Signing With Omar.

I must improve discipline. It is imperative that I learn sign language. The way the world is going, it is the future language and I don’t want to be left behind.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang. 

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