Elements of Distance Education Diffusion

George Siemens discussed the growing acceptance of distance education in today’s corporate and educational spheres, including three possible elements of distance education that are creating more effective learning experiences and giving distance education an identity of its own distinct from F2F courses: (a) global diversity, (b) communication, and (c) collaborative interaction. Do you agree or disagree with his view?

Select one of these three elements for your reflection this week and respond to the following in your blog:

·             How has this element evolved?

·             What online tools are available today to facilitate these interactions among learners?

The one element that I selected to reflect upon this week is global diversity. Global diversity has truly evolved overtime in the field of distance education. The reason that it has evolved is because students and professors can now have collaborative online discussions in an asynchronous or synchronous environment with people all over the globe. They can have these discussions through many different formats at any time and place.

There are a vast amount of tools that are available through distance learning. Some of these tools include:  discussion forums, blogs, wikis, tweeter, moogle, skype, blackboard, email, youtube, and the list goes on. These tools open the door to access many profound experts to learners in many different fields. Distance education will continue to grow and change through the future years.  

The Internet offers a vast amount of educational opportunities for the whole population. Technology has opened its doors to all types of learners around the world. According to Siemens global diversity is an online trend that will continue to grow through time.

Siemens, G. (2008). Assessment of collaborative learning. Vodocast. Laureate Education, Inc.

The Next Generation of Distance Education

College-level credit granting distance education courses are on the uprise. In my opinion  Moller, Huett, Foshay, and Coleman (2008) states that most higher education needs better instructional design for successful learning experiences to take place. They weigh in on the concern that distance education is relying too much on staff that has not been trained effectively in instructional design. I have to agree that this could in fact be reality. A professor from a previous class admitted to me that this was his or her first time teaching the class, and he or she had difficulty guiding me. The training depends on quick turn around times and the one size fits all way of thinking in all three articles (2008).

Distance learning does not provide the face-to-face learning environment that we have grown accustomed to through the past years. Simonsom (2000) states that distance learning education has been around for decades.He goes on to say how there is going to be a great growth in distance education in the future; however it will not replace the traditional schools.

Through the era of time design is changing and the old ways of doing things are not sufficient across the globe. Adult and child must be considered during instructional design. This must be considered to provide effective learning experiences for all types of learners.

First blog ever,
Sandra


References:

Moller, L.,  Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The evolution of distance education:  Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 1:  Training and Development). Tech Trends, 52(3), 70-75. Use of the Academic Search Premier database, and search using the article's title.

Moller, L.,  Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The evolution of distance education:  Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 2:  Higher Education). Tech Trends, 52(4), 66-70.. Use of the Academic Search Premier database, and search using the article's title.

Moller, L.,  Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The evolution of distance education:  Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 3:  K12). Tech Trends, 52(5), 63-67. Use of the Academic Search Premier database, and search using the article's title.

Simonson, M. (2000). Making decisions: The use of electronic technology in online classes. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 84, 29-34.