Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Module 2

Blog-Module 2
With change happening every day, the technological means, in all areas, for society had to jump on the band wagon and come up with intriguing innovative tools. With discrimination barriers no longer existing, technology components integrated in social areas of the workplace, school, and in everyday life (communication). Technologies provided accommodations and modifications to these three areas. Business offered training skills, educational institutions offered online classes to meet the demands of the working class, and social websites allowed people to connect to family and friends around the world. Technology has advanced at such a rapid rate that a person could be on a business trip in Italy and attend a board meeting back in Austin, Texas via satellite or phone without any hassles.

The internet offers all kinds of technology tools to help any individual in any area or aspect that they may need additional help or for leisure purposes. Today, an individual have the same opportunity as anyone else to surf the internet; whereas when the internet first came out, only the individuals that were able to afford the internet used its components. The internet benefits range from: communication techniques (social websites & instant messaging), educational links (edhelper.com, encyclopedia, & search engines), health information (any health topic or issues), and basically anything you can think of. Dr. Siemens states that individuals need to gain practical experience with new tools and society is taking him up on that challenge. Lastly, the internet has paved the way for education to be taught online and meet the needs for individuals who have barriers that might affect them in any particular way. Distance education serves the needs of not only the traditional-age college student, but also the most rapidly growing segment of the population, adult learners over the age of 35 years who have full-time jobs, families, and limited discretionary time (Johnson, 2006).

The blogs sites that include the diversity of distance education are the following:
On Open, distance, e-learning and other name confusion January 15, 2009 by Terry Anderson at
http://terrya.edublogs.org/2009/01/15/on-open-distance-e-learning-and-other-name-confusion/
and The Evolution of Distance Learning in Higher Education by: Judith L. Johnson at http://distance-edu.blogspot.com/.

Sources:

Anderson, T. (2009). On open, distance, e-learning and other name confusion. Retrieved on September
27, 2009 from http://terrya.edublogs.org/2009/01/15/on-open-distance-e-learning-and-other-
name-confusion/

Johnson, J. L. (2006). The evolution of distance learning in higher education. Retrieved on September
27, 2009 from http://distance-edu.blogspot.com/.

Siemens, G. (n.d). The future of distance education. Retrieved September 23, 2009 from
http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=3649021&Survey=1&47=5797856&ClientNodeID=984645&coursenav=1&bhcp=1 from the EDUC-7102-2 Principles of Distance Education Web site.

4 comments:

  1. Nikisha,

    First and foremost, thank you for sharing Terry Anderson's blog concerning distance learning. When I saw his name appear, and realized it was the very same Terry Anderson from Athabasca University that authored our textbook I was thrilled. Normally I would skim such an extensive post, but I found myself reading every word and many of the comments beyond. It is interesting to note that he connects the term “open” with “distance” when applied to online learning. I particularly liked his ending quote attributed to UNESCO, 1975, about the definition of openness, “an imprecise phrase to which a range of meanings can be attached.” Does this quote imply that online learning, if in fact, is also open, is imprecise and available for interpretation?

    On another point, I am not sure how I feel about transparency in distance education, as discussed by Terry Anderson. There is a certain degree of security in the relative anonymity of the asynchronous format.

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  2. Everyone have their veiws about the positive and negative aspects on asynchronous vs synchronous learning environments. I think society needs to leave it up to the individuals and let them determine which type of environment they would like to learn from; instead society is trying to be the voice of the entire country.

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  3. The internet is a great technological tool for research. One thing I had a problem with was finding blogsites to reference. I love technology but when you stop keeping in touch with the updates of it then you fall into the stone ages and are completely lost when you are trying to get back into the swing of it and how to use it. Communication seems to be the key aspect for everything from learning to relationships.

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  4. Distance education is meeting the needs of a wide variety of learners. I believe that distance education is going to see a significant boost due to the constraints our economic state is putting on the people of today. More and more people are trying to find a way to work and further their education to get better and seemingly more stable jobs.

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