When I decided to pursue my MET, I did so because it was offered online, would improve my use of technology, and challenge me academically.  What I did not think about was how I was under the control of the E.  This past January was the perfect storm, both figuratively and literally, to show me how much I relied on E.

The weather here in Chilliwack, BC in January was colder and snowier than normal.  Now, I understand the rest of Canada would not find this a problem but Chilliwack has about 4 plows and I think one might be a Bobcat.  So with this deluge of snow, I’m kidding, came another problem: power outages.  When there is no power there is no E-Learning.  This caused a little stress because assignments were due and posts needed to be made.  During the four snow days we had, our power was out three times.  You would think that four days with no school would allow a lot of time to work on my MET, but there were the power outages.  Because of all the power outages, our Internet connection was also out for about two days.

Now if the snow wasn’t bad enough we had week two.  A fire at a Wood Mill caused some damage to a fibre optic cable for the same Internet provider.  So my Internet at work and home was out for almost two days. With that corrected, a BC Hydo station blew up here and knocked out the power for 12 hours and yes the Internet was down for that day and some of the following.  This all occurred during our Rubric project.  I was in the middle of an Elluminate session when the power went out and I was just finishing the second meeting when the power went out again.  Now there was some luck.  On the day our Rubric project was due I sent my final draft to the group, not ten minutes later the Hydro Station blew up!  I tried frantically to see if the email was received but I had no power, Internet or cell phone capabilities.

All of these bumps in the road taught me that my life is very dependent on the E.  I was getting a little stressed about due dates when my wife asked what I do as a teacher if a student told me this story?  I got the point; I am a student and a teacher.  During the four snow days I returned emails from stressed kids telling them not to worry, I will give extensions.  I figured I might as well tell m Profs the story and see what happens.  So I headed to a Starbucks to use their Internet and sent an email to my two Profs.  There was no need for the stress because they said the same thing to me that I had told all my students, don’t worry and hand it in as soon as possible.

So even though we rely heavily on the E in this MET program, there are still humans that we can connect with and chat with.  This was something I never thought about when I applied, but I really do enjoy the human aspect of E-Learning