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
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
Alicia,
ReplyDeleteEverything that you stated in your blog is correct and happening as we speak. The best indicator of communication making such an impact is the fact that, other than a travel factor, distance means nothing anymore. Businesses, schools, and other organizations operate across borders and time zones with ease. As you mentioned in my blog, face-to-face communication is best in terms of collaboration, and being able to synchronously chat improves the collaboration process as delays are the enemy of collaboration.
This is the first time that I have ever consistently used a blog. Of course when blogs came through as the hottest educational trends I attempted to start one, but it just seemed like a lot of time and energy. However, now that I am consistently using the technology and more comfortable with it, I can see where the benefit lies. This is real, meaningful communication that I think my students would benefit from. This is the essence of distance education and something that would allow me to incorporate a hybrid classroom where there are elements of traditional education and elements of distance education.
ReplyDeleteYour selection of communication as one of George Siemens’ key contributing elements (Laureate, 2008) to the success of Distance Education invites the understanding of its equal weight and interchangeability with Global Diversity and Interactive Collaboration. I believe that these three elements work beautifully in harmony. In addition to the scarcity of people to communicate via the internet, I would like to add the prohibiting cost of online access in the beginning. I remember having had to pay $2.50 an hour to America Online in the early 1990’s. My amazement with the current state of affordability and accessibility of instant communication via the internet rests with the ability to post anything in picture, audio, or video format from anywhere in the world to social networking sites or other venues such as the Ireport functionality at CNN (Retrieved from http://ireport.cnn.com/)
ReplyDelete