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.