Distance Education Communication

          Distance Education Communication

The way that people communicate is changing at significantly over the last decade. At one time there were very few methods for people to communicate via the Internet. People would send email and use instant messaging. Through the developments of social networking and face-time chatting it’s starting to change the way students in an online community communication with each other.According to Langton, "the online tools that are available today to help facilitate global interactions among learners are numerous”    (http://langstonnotes.blogspot.com/2011/12/module-2-assignment.html?showComment=1325309162482#c5823722556074796785).
Most of the course I took in the master’s program required students to create a blog. Through this blog students would communicate their ideas and views on a particular topic.  When assigned to work in groups sometimes the group members will befriend each other on a social networking site they have in common. This provides an easier to communicate and also allows the group members to learn more about it each other. There may be students have synchronous chats to collaborate and share ideas as well.

http://langstonnotes.blogspot.com/2011/12/module-2-assignment.html?showComment=1325309162482#c5823722556074796785

The Next Generation of Distance Education

Distance education and traditional education both have pros and cons to each. They are actual very similar. Both setting have an objective that the students must master. It how effective the learning assignments are that determines if the setting is effective.  

A traditional education is normally a very controlled setting and learning is based on collaboration and having oral class discussions. This environment may hinder some people from maximizing their potential. The teacher may not spend a lot of time on discussions that are not directly aligned with the standards or objective.

Distance education increases the learner-to-learner collaboration. This form of education has on going collaboration where the learner is not in a controlled setting. The learner is able to maximize their potential in this setting. The learner can conduct independent research to discuss with their distance education classmates. Distance education is mainly performance based. The learner independently learns the content and has to demonstrate their understanding of the information.

As stated before, one setting is not better than the other. I depend on the learner needs and preference.  Some people work well in a controlled setting and other does not.  It important to make sure that the content is delivered in a meaningful matter to meet the need(s) of the learner.

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

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

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