I had a very difficult time deciding which of the three elements of distance education to discuss in this post. After a great deal of thought, I decided to choose communication. I feel that communication has changed in distance education in response to growth in the technology and methods used. As we moved past the years when dial-up was the only connection to the Internet and only one browser existed, the ability to communicate with others online became easier, which translated into a greater ease of communication in distance education. Now, emailing others in your class is not the only way to communicate with them. Skype is a tool being used now by many distance education teachers and students to add to the experience; it provides students with the ability to see and hear those that they might never have visual and auditory contact with otherwise. A tool that I just became aware of that looks to provide a more school district-friendly Facebook experience is Edmodo, which I hope to have the opportunity to try this year in my classroom.
The first blog I have provided a link to is part of Edutopia. I linked to a specific post--the one that mentioned Edmodo--because it discussed sites that might provide students with opportunities to communicate with one another online. These sites would give distance education students and teachers alternate ways to communicate and submit assignments no matter the amount of time they actually spend learning online.
Instead of posting a link to one other blog, I have chosen to provide links to a few other educational technology blogs that I have found useful in getting ideas for my classroom, especially ideas about tools to use to improve online communication with the students in my classroom. I may not teach distance education courses, but I am very interested in bringing some of the elements of distance education into my brick-and-mortar classroom.
Great job Monica. Communication is huge to interacting in the DE field. I have explored many realms of education and agree communication plays a major role in the overall learning process. When we compare DE to F2F we see many similarities and differences, however communication is used in both and needs to be clear and understood by the learner for effective communication to enhance learning. Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteHi Monica,
ReplyDeleteI agree that communication is vital and has changed in Distance Education. We have so much more to work with than in previous years as you have stated. I would like to say that often students in rural Tennessee where I am residing use dial-up to access the Internet because it is their only resource. This has a lot of bearing on the way that I manage workloads for students. Those on dial-up cannot download large files like students who have faster Internet service. Good post by the way!!
Neena
Monica,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for listing all of your resources. They are extremely helpful. Until I started this class, I had no idea how antiquated some of my customers training environments were nor how little exposure I truly had. Communication is definitely a crucial element in distance learning environments!
I loved your post Monica. I think as educators we sometimes loose sight of helping one another once we find a sight we like to use. We tend to "hold it under the radar." I think communication is a vital part of anyone's success in whatever one chooses. Can distance education survive without communication? Better yet: with limited communication how successful can distance education really be?
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