What Has More Impact on Distance Education?

As I reflected on the presentations of Dr. Simonson and George Siemens; along with the Heather Kanuka and Nancy Parker writings and focused my attention to global diversity, communication, and collaborative interaction; I find that the most influential component to distance education is communication.

Communication is important to distance learning; it provides the vehicle for distance education. For this reason the improvements of communication bring about improvements to distance education. Siemens stated that with communication improvements and the increase use of multimedia, games, and simulation; distance education will continue to become more and more accepted by the masses (Laureate, 2008).  There are many tools that continue to help expand the reach of distance education, such as: edmodo (education version of Facebook), free websites for teachers with the ability to download or link or embed material, skype, email, and blogging. All of these new innovative ways to communicate with students are helping the spread of distance education.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Principles of Distance Education [DVD]. The Future of Distance Education. Baltimore: Author.

Learning Theories for Distance Learning

I have been a practicing constructivist for the past 3 years. As I read the articles I found that my the lessons I have learned these past 3 years in trying to implement technology in my classroom have been strides in the right direction. As I continue this process of implementing more technology into my classroom and lessons; I can now find ways to utilize technology more effectively in the field of education. As a primary teacher I am not sure exactly how much I can implement, but I can say that our youth are more tech savy than we think.

Paper in progress: Impact of games on distance learning

This project is posing some challeges in the fact that research is in this area is limited. However, I have found some research from manufactuers on the subject. However difficult, I am finding the research I have found to be interesting in regards to the impact of educational games.