By: Dr. Jesse O. Bolinger
Growing up in rural Iowa, I attended Orient-Macksburg for elementary and middle school and Creston High School, I had the advantage of watching technology evolve in more ways than one. In a prior column I talked about my technology experience. What I did not mention was my experience watching online learning evolve. In elementary school, I remember someone saying that someday kids would be taught by robots at the front of the classroom and that kids would be able to learn from home. All of this sounded crazy at the time, but they had the learning from home part right!
As I obtained my own education I became aware of the fact that online courses are not just for grade school and college students, anyone can learn online. When I began my service I quickly realized that the ability to present online courses for Decatur County residence existed and was something that we should take full advantage of. While it was challenging, I also took a personal challenge to develop my first online course! I am pleased that we are now able to offer our first free online course “Financial and Resource Scarcity and You”.
The content of the course is designed to aid individuals who are experiencing a lack of either money or physical resources in learning strategies to get through the situation and aid in the situation not occurring again in the future. The course contains a number of assignments that participants are encouraged to complete for their own reflection and to save to future reference. In addition, the course provides discussion topics that participants can take part in.
The course is ongoing, there are not set start and end dates and users will have access to the course for as long as they wish. To take advantage of this free resource please visit https://www.dcdciowa.org/learn.
Over the remainder of my term of service as a VISTA, I encourage anyone who has questions, comments or ideas about how to improve the quality of life in Decatur County to contact me. I enjoy having conversations with individuals who wish to share their own personal experience and am always willing to visit with any individual or group. Please feel free to contact me by phone at (641)455-2896 or by e-mail at jbolinger@dcdciowa.org.