new pursuits

I am pursuing an MA online thru SUNY at Stony Brook. I've always thought well of Stony Brook - especially the radio station - I had a boyfriend who was a dj/student. The station's motto at the time was, "Your first station of the '90's". That's how long ago that was - 1990.

Anyway, it's cool - I love being a student and in a lot of ways, I think participating in a totally online program is like being a pioneer - trailblazing and other forefront metaphores. There are caveats - I wouldn't have wanted to do an undergrad online - that's where I learned how to be a student and had academia modeled to me.

At more than US$400/credit, I expect a lot. There are a number of administrative things that have been and continue to be glitchy for me as an overseas student - but those seem like issues to be worked out together... happy to be on the team and so forth - as long as I can have access to book lists/syllabi in time to get my books here... a struggle each and every semester! But I'm promised each time, they're working on it.

The program offers no online student center - the only place I, a strictly online student, have access to other students is on the class blackboards. While each class has a "water-cooler" area - it is all under the purview of the professor and only available during the semester. So, it's not a place where I can ask other students about their best/worst classes, professors, or what they plan to do with their degrees... Had there been one, I wouldn't be in the class I'm in now!

So I'm gonna create one! It'll be an experiment too - I'll employ the tools of blogging I've been reading about, how to get hits, show up on search engines - and I'll email all the stoodents I can.