Listen to the Natives - the Digital Ones!

Hi All,
I have been studying online for about 1.5 years now and I have changed my habits a lot since I first started.

My advice is to try to become more Digital Native in your approach to your study.

When I first began online study I used to print out all the readings. I soon ended up with piles of paper the thickness of telephone books. After learning about Prensky's "Digital Natives", I began to question my practice of printing out everything to read.

I bought myself a laptop - a Macbook Pro. My life changed! I was a PC girl for 17 faithful years but now that I've gone Mac - well all I can say is "What took me so long!".

So, what has changed?

The screen on my Mac is really soft on my eyes so I am able to read off the screen. Now I just download the files and create sticky notes that I can attach to the PDF files. I can organize all my reading into folders for the different modules. I think that because its a laptop, I am able to read more easily as I can sit on the sofa or take my Macbook to the hair salon or cafe to read my notes. There are free programs that you can use to highlight PDFs so It's just like using a pen on paper. I like to use different colours.

I can also backup to my portable hard drive and keep all the readings without creating piles of paper.

I like the flexibility of being able to study anywhere. Jakarta has more WiFi available but now that I have a dongle I can literally study anywhere.

I do agree with logging in often. I have also found that it takes a few weeks to get into the habit. I will find this harder this semester as I am starting a new job which makes me very busy. I am trying but the most I can manage at the moment is Sat, Sun and maybe one other weekday.

Anyway, that's my advice for what it's worth.