Defining Distance Learning

The Evolution of Distance Learning 

     Before I began this online course, my definition of distance learning was televised courses and online classes. My first college class was a distance educational course. It was a previously recorded video. The class met to take a midterm and then a final. My second distance course was a full online course, it was Algebra II, and needless to say I had to take it twice. It lacked the interactions that I needed to understand the concepts in Algebra. Now I am enrolled in a fully online Master’s degree program. I really never thought about distance learning in any other form.

     After this week’s readings I look at the definition of distance learning in a whole new way. Distance learning has many definitions; the word distance is the variable in the definition. Since the way distance education has changed over the years, it has created many theories. Distance education must contain an educator that prepares lessons that learners engage in the lessons. Also, the learning must be separated from the teacher and the learners, communication is done through non face to face, and it must be intuitionally based. These factors have mostly stayed consistent through out the history of distance education (Simonson et al. 2012).”

     The last component that is “the sharing of data, voice, and video” the way we show our learning. The distance has changed for example, in the 18th Century, distance education was connected to the newspaper, next it became the radio, then the television, and finally we have intuitions that offer full online degrees. So the word distance in distance education is really connected to current technologies (Simonson et al. 2012).”

     The factors that drive distance education are connected to the technologies of the current educational developments. I believe because people have different interpretations of the word distance this can be a variance depending on a person’s profession and exposure to technologies. I my field of education I observe teachers everyday, that are afraid of technology. I also observe teachers that have the technological know-how. So the factors that contribute to the current definition are a person’s education and exposure to technologies.

     The way I look at distance education is different that I had previously. For example, prior to week one’s reading distance education classes were classes that were offered to learners due to other classes being filled. After reading this weeks course content, I see how distance education has evolved with the current technologies of the era. “The newer technologies dominate what the older technologies…can’t fill (Simonson et al. 2012).” I can see that in the future that education will eventually have educational interfaces that will compliment the current distance educational learning of today and support learning objectives. Also, there will be will be more personalized education and more virtual learning environments, where learners will have a strong sense of a virtual presence (Dede, 2005).   

Resources

Dede, C. (2005). Planning for neomillennial learning styles. Educause Quarterly, 28(2), 7-12.

 Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W. R., & Coleman, C. (2008). The Evolution of Distance Education: Implications for Instructional Design on the Potential of the Web. Part 3: K-12. Techtrends:Linking Research And Practice To Improve Learning, 52(5), 63-67.

Moller, L., Foshay, W. R., & Huett, J. (2008). The Evolution of Distance Education: Implications for Instructional Design on the Potential of the Web. Techtrends: Linking Research And Practice To Improve Learning, 52(3), 70-75.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5^th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.