Defining Distance Learning

Before starting the course “Distance Learning”, I defined it as basically teacher and student were not in the same location and time, but they were on the same “page.” It helped that I had witness or experienced different types of distance learning. By mail, by video camera conference, by Internet, etc. After our required reading for this week and multimedia, I was not surprised that although it was more eloquent, the definition was not much different. In the multimedia “Distance Education The Next Generation” Dr. Simonson defined distance education as “formal education in which the learning group (teacher, students, resources) are separated by geography and, sometimes, by time.”

Although I was surprised in our reading “Teaching and Learning at a Distance”, how far back in time “Correspondence Study” went, I was not surprised at the consideration of postal mail as distance learning. Unfortunately the reason I know of this as a possibility is due to all of the scams that have been used any many comedic routines, scams that are now used on the Internet every minute of every day. Even with the scams that have overwhelmed the idea of distant learning, there is still a need and desire for those wanting to learn but no resources to accomplish it.

Each medium that was used in the past and present to maintain distance education can be utilized for the future. Regular postal mail has a continued potential for the areas of the globe who do not have access to modern technology or even electricity.

If you look at the mind-map I created. I have distance learning broken down into 5 categories. Now you may see the category of animal and be a little confused since we are to be creating where we believe distant learning is heading. Granted animals (like the ones I listed) were mostly use for the dispersal of news or information or course materials; however, if you look at the fifth animal I list (“Purple Dinosaur”) animals have often been considered teaching tools. Not only to have the animals to watch in their daily habitats, I was proud to be one of the students to take home the rat that my 6th grade class studied, but they are important to a mental comprehension and pacification. In the article “Pets-The Furry Mind-Body Healers” (retrieved from http://www.suite101.com/content/pets---the-furry-mind-body-healers-a267588), research has found that “it has been found that when pets are in a house with children between one and six years of age, the kids often develop improved social skills and better coordination.” In the third part of the article “Evolution of Distance Education: Implications for Instructional Design on the Potential of the Web” speaks of a concern “about social development that may exceed classroom-based instruction.”



I believe that the opportunities are endless with the technology and resources we have available to us, but there is that fear in the back of my mind that started from personal experience, will isolation become an even bigger problem as distance learning increases in popularity, efficiency, and possibilities.