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.
3 comments:
I find the ability to communicate an essential tool, technology improvements have certainly facilitated the ability to cross distance in an instant. For example, at the residence this summer I met other teachers in tech ed. with similar interests. One teacher invited me to link with her students and mine in a site allowing them to communicate about robotics. She created the site and has her kids ready, but to my frustration our club hasn't gotten on its feet yet. Communication here breaks down as there is none with which to communicate yet!
The technology allows the opportunity, but we must seize it for our benefit!
Jeff Sparling
Greetings Edtech4teachers,
In accordance with both you and Jeff, I also agree that communication is essential for any relationship to be successful. This is true for both F2F and distant learning environments. One component of our communication that has been very effective was us collaborating for our other course to establish group procedures and guidelines. By explicitly stating the parameters and criterion for acceptable communication, we have set ourselves up for a successful collaboration.
Tawana Stiff
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