Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Elements of Distance Education

 Global diversity is emerging in the genre of distance education.  In predicting the new innovations and determining what will be common trends, there are elements, factors, and social acceptance to analyze before a product can be known as a common trend.  Dr. Siemen’s webcast explains the different aspects of global diversity in the educational and corporate genres.   He continues by explaining how distance education provides the Earth with an opportunity to reach unknown locations and connect nationally and internationally.  This increases e-learning possibilities.  Therefore, global diversity, communication, and collaboration interactions have provided a platform for distance education to cultivate and become mature.  Gros and Adrian (2005) state that this type of environment will provide distance education students an alternative environment for constructing knowledge and encourage instructors to use multiple technologies that utilize different educational techniques. Hence, distance education instructors may implement webcasts, skype, facebook, wikispaces, blogs, and/or any other asynchronous or synchronous web 2.0 tools into their lessons or curriculums.

          So, do I agree or disagree with Dr. Siemen’s notions and ideologies? Well yes, I agree with Dr. Siemen concepts based on my own personal research on distance education and its possibilities.



Gros, B., & Adrian, M. (2005).  The use of virtual forums to provide collaborative learning in higher education.  Educational Technology, 45(5), 17-20.

Laureate Education Inc. (2008).  Principles of Distance Education.  Baltimore:  Author.

7 comments:

  1. Seane, The three elements listed by Siemens as currently affecting distance education have already happened. We already have global diversity in online educational opportunities. We already use synchronous and asynchronous tools to communicate online and we already engage in conversations together (collaborative interactions)in an online world. So if these things have already occurred, what next? Southern New Hampshire University makes a predication in their post that resembles a MOOC. In other words, it already happened, so what is next after that?

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  2. Seane,

    As Durff notes, the three elements are already in place. How have they evolved since their inception? You note several web technologies including webcasts, skype, and social networking sites. How have these evolved? Have you noticed a change in blogs or wikis? I know many K-12 teachers are using wikis for their courses (some due to district mandates), but I have not noticed much change in the way they function. I would also predict that most K-12 teachers do not use them collaboratively, but as a repository for information for their students. Do you have predictions as to how these Web 2.0 tools may be incorporated into classrooms of the future?

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  3. Actually, in my region of the country, K-12 teachers do not use wiki pages or a lot of technology in their classrooms. Therefore, all of this technology like wiki pages, I am learning and implementing for the first time while completing my specialist. I guess that is why I feel like I am decades behind everyone else.

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  4. Global diversity is a positive aspect of distance learning because it connects people who wouldn't normally interact and can help build relationships and break the "us and them" mentality we see throughout the world. However, I still believe we have a long way to go to include global diversity in the K-12 classroom. Most learning doesn't go outside of the local district. Wikis are between classmates. Even K-12 distance education extends only regionally. How can we include global diversity in k-12 education?

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  5. Luke, thank you for understanding that K-12, global diversity and distance education are decades apart in K-12 school districts. K-12 school districts mainly implement distance education into their curriculum as a substitute and not a solution for providing certified staff to teach their students. Thus, organizations like Teach for America are more successful in the K-12 genre than distance education. With the continuation of teacher shortages, maybe distance education and/or a hybrid verison of distance education can be a solution in closing the gab. As of right now, global diversity in K-12 is just a far notion, especially in the southern and mid-southern states.

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  6. I am an advocate for hybrid learning which most accurately reflects the way students will live, learn and work in their future.

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  7. @Seane, To whom much is given, much is expected. I think you are elected to teach everyone in your area!

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