Open Source

Open Yale Courses - http://oyc.yale.edu/

This website is an example of Open Source software that can be used by anyone just for the sake of learning, for free.  This fairly new concept is free in use but there are costs involved with developing and maintain these courses. In the case of Open Yale course, Yale University covers the expenses and posts the course and the material that corresponds with each course. This site offers course in all fields of study and multiple options for each field.

Since my field of interest and undergrad degree is in history, I concentrated my efforts in this subject area.  Each of the courses offer an overview of the class, information about the professor, a syllabus, necessary downloads, a list of class sessions and a survey. These elements generally align with the critical components for a successful learning system, which are “the learners, the content, the method and materials, and the environment, including the technology.” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Albright, 2009, p. 127) With the addition of the survey, it also offers an opportunity for evaluation which is also “Another critical part of the (distance learning) process.” (Simonson, et al, 2009, p. 127) These course offer video, audio and lecture transcripts for the learners to absorb the material in various ways that would suit their preferred learning style. This site takes advantage of lectures that were given to a live audience or class and uses that as the basis for the online materials. The content is quality university level with qualified professors giving the lectures. It also uses the most common software to allow the students to view or hear the lectures.

Since these courses do offer those components, it does appear to be pre-planned and designed for distance learning in several ways. Even though the lectures were given to a face to face audience, a distance learner could still get the information from the various sources this site provides. The class sessions are methodically planned out in a logical manner and easy for the distance learner to stay with the natural progression of the course as well as backtrack or advance to other class sessions. The technology used to provide the learners with the lectures is also distance learner friendly since they use the most common formats that most computers can use.

These courses only follow some of the recommendations for online learners.  In the book, Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Education, Simonson provides a list of 12 “golden rules” to designing and developing a quality distance learning environment. (Simonson, et al, 2009, p. 147.) Some of the rules such as, “Each medium has its own aesthetic” and “Make all four media available to teachers and learners,” are indeed used. (Simonson, et al, 2009, p. 147) However other rules such as “Good teaching matters,” “Interaction is essential,” and “Student numbers are critical,” are not closely followed.

From the time I spent in this site, I could not find any genuine interaction with the other students as well as the instructor. Some of these class sessions were done many years ago, so these classes are truly for those who just want to learn the material without being actively involved with the class and have a collective learning experience.  There are no learning activities to participate in and the required assignments do not have a place like a “drop box” to submit the student’s work. If someone is just getting some quality information about a certain topic in any field of study without the added requirements of a true distance education, then this specific Open Source site provides that type of experience as and it is easy to use.

Reference
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and
learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Blog Entry dated 3/13/2011 6:12 PM

Interactive Tours – Week 3 Application

Example: A high school history teacher, located on the west coast of the United States, wants to showcase to her students new exhibits being held at two prominent New York City museums. The teacher wants her students to take a "tour" of the museums and be able to interact with the museum curators, as well as see the art work on display. Afterward, the teacher would like to choose two pieces of artwork from each exhibit and have the students participate in a group critique of the individual work of art. As a novice of distance learning and distance learning technologies, the teacher turned to the school district’s instructional designer for assistance. In the role of the instructional designer, what distance learning technologies would you suggest the teacher use to provide the best learning experience for her students?

In this scenario, there are many options for the high school teacher. In the multimedia presentation, "The Technology of Distance Education" (2010), it recommends using media sharing sites. These are ‘Web sites that facilitate the sharing of content and artifacts such as text, pictures, videos, presentations and audio files.” (2010) There are several of these sites such as Flickr and YouTube, but there is also one called Microsoft Photosynth. This allows the user to upload a series of images in a place like a museum and allow the viewer to scan the entire area and focus in on any particular spot, or in this case, artwork. Click on this link to see an example of how one museum in Orange County, California used it: http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=884a1845-e29e-4ef5-a4d0-13bdb9d97686.  This type of media website would solve the issue of letting the students see all the artwork in New York.

The second part of this scenario needs an online place to critique two specific art pieces and interact with the curator. The aforementioned multimedia presentation (2010) and the book Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Learning, state that through the use of Blogging, this format could be used for “student reflections about course content or reporting activities in a student teaching experience.” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009, p.245) With a blog, the curator could post images of the two pieces of art, write their own thoughts or ask questions about the artwork and then the students could respond to the curator and/or the other students’ critiques. The following link from the Laguna Art Museum in California is an example of this format in use: http://lagunaartmuseum.org/blogs.

In addition to this format posting the specific artwork on a social network could be powerful as well. Using “social networking sites promote the development of online communities through posting of personal information, journals, photos…” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009, p.246) The most popular social network is Facebook, but there are others such as Hitwise and MySpace. The curator could set up a specific account just for the purpose of critiquing these two art pieces and communicate with the students about their critiques.

References
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009).
            Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance
education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Multimedia Program: "The Technology of Distance Education"
This interactive multimedia introduces the advantages and disadvantages of using the technological innovations that have played a significant role in the evolution of distance learning including podcasts, discussion technologies, blogs, concept maps, and media sharing sites. Walden University (2010)

Distance Education - Week 1

Distance education is an ever evolving definition and field. Just like education in general, it evolves or changes because of those involved with the process. As the people involved and technology change, so does the notion of educating at a distance. The notion that there is a teacher/instructor and student/ learner remains in the equation. The notion that actual teaching and learning is occurring remains constant. The change is content, format, procedure, but educating and being educated continues. The change is also in when and where this education is happening. There cannot be any final definition of distance education, because education itself is in constant flux and being “distant” could mean as far as the computer next to yours.

With that in mind, how did distance education begin? We can research and identify the “origins” of modern day distance education, but the personal origins of distance education are more intriguing. In other words, think about the first time you learned from someone or something that was at a distance. Some of my students think that sitting at the back of the classroom is “distance education” and some of their parents agree. For myself, I can recall learning from two specific “distance” formats. One is through the mail. I remember getting letters from relatives that gave me information and I learned either something about the geography and weather of their area or some family history. I also remember being a pen pal with a woman in Venezuela when I was in fourth grade. We learned from each other about life in the other’s country. Truth be told, I am sure I learned more from her than she from me at that age. I also remember writing to some place and getting stamps for my stamp collection. With the stamps came information about the stamps. The letter correspondence was interactive, but the stamp collecting was not. Of course, there were no assessments to gauge my education; however, learning did occur.

The second of my early days of distance education was from television. True, most of the programs in those days were not designed to be “education” specific, but who among us did not learn from that glowing box? Some obvious avenues of learning happened from the news, but as a child, that bored me. However, on Saturday mornings, I learned from Tom Hatten! Who is Tom Hatten? He was the host of the “Adventures of Popeye” show. Granted, I was not learning about high society affairs or international diplomacy, but I looked forward every Saturday to learning about things about Popeye, the other characters and sometimes he would throw in some extra real academic facts for us to keep. This was distance education for me and many others. The best part was that we could write him with questions of our own if we so chose!

Fast forward to today and distance education is rapidly changing and becoming more sophisticated. One of the most recent definitions of distance education has four components. According to the book, Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Learning, the four components are it must “be institutionally-based, formal education where the learning group is separated, and where interactive telecommunications systems are used to connect learners, resources, and instructors.” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009, p. 32) With the advent and access of the internet, distance education has become a valid and accepted method of education. The added benefit of the internet has been speed. Previous distance education took long periods of time to get the materials, interact with the instructors and to get the final assessments. Distance education today has the advancement of technology to aid its merit and accessibility. Therefore, distance education is no longer just a haphazard and sporadic means of learning through inconsistent and informal organizations, but a very specific and intentional formal method of communicating and interacting with materials, resources and people at a high rate of speed to produce a learning experience with the latest technological products.

The future of distance education is not so future. In the video, “Distance Education: The Next Generation,” Dr. Simonson states, “Today, distance education is widely adopted and approaching critical mass.” (2010) Distance education is being done through universities, high schools, and corporations. It is no longer just for getting a degree but used for training purposes. As the article, “The evolution of distance education: part1” (Moller, Foshay, & Huett, J., 2008) states, distance education has some economic advantages because they are “Letting the electrons do the traveling,” instead of the trainers or trainees. Distance education is not just accessible, but practical with economic benefits.

As more people and organizations see the benefits to distance education, there will be more evidence in the work place and academics. Although distance education will never completely remove a “bricks and mortar” classroom with a live instructor, it will become a viable option. In my field of education, even though there already is a “virtual school” for the K-12 grades, I foresee more and more students and parents using this avenue of instruction. This is a possible option for students on medical leave, behavioral issues that remove them from the school campus, those in rural areas and for those who choose a home school setting. As the budget cuts continue to loom, one possible solution is for an online set up for the students. It would save millions of dollars with overhead and teacher costs. As society becomes more and more adept to the functionality and ease of distance education, it will find its way into more homes, organizations, businesses and schools.

References:

“Distance Education: The Next Generation” (video) 2010

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 2: Higher education). TechTrends, 52(4), 66–70.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.