George Siemens discussed the growing acceptance of distance education in today’s corporate and educational spheres, including three possible elements of distance education that are creating more effective learning experiences and giving distance education an identity of its own distinct from F2F courses: (a) global diversity, (b) communication, and (c) collaborative interaction. Do you agree or disagree with his view? Select one of these three elements for your reflection in this module and respond to the following in your blog: Collaborative Interaction How has this element evolved? According to Dr. Siemens, distance education will be impacted by new communication technology, contribution by experts from around the world, and an increase of multimedia games and simulations such as video work within courses (Laureate, 2008). Through collaborative online interaction and activities, learners have to work and learn together, and to excel in this type of environment, they must maintain a certain level of comfort. Dr. Siemens suggested that once learners take one or two online courses, it may turn into a more preferable way to learn, and through that experience learners may get comfortable with it (Laureate, 2008). What online tools are available today to facilitate these interactions among learners? Collaborative interaction is increasingly being supported and promoted in online educational environments with various technological tools to help learners interact and work together. Dr. Siemens mentioned that Skype and video conferences have improved tremendously and are being distributed more than it ever was in this type of learning environment (Laureate, 2008). This simply means that the computer age and communication are quickly changing, and ttechnologies that were previously thought of as being cutting-edge, are now becoming common tools used in distance education today. References: Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Principles of distance education: The future of distance education. Baltimore, MD: Author. | Joshua Davenport http://adavenporteducation.blogspot.com/ Patricia Marcino https://marcipe.wordpress.com/ |
5 Comments
Mustafa
6/25/2015 06:14:19 am
Hi Naquai,
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Naquai Roundtree
6/26/2015 12:45:42 pm
Mustafa, good point about the non-discriminatory factor, I’ve never really thought of that. But, do you think discrimination could possibly occur in an online environment when one looks at the gender of a person, or the origin of a person’s name?
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6/27/2015 04:11:12 am
Naquai, I think you explained very well, the concepts about distance education and the need for collaboration. Also, one must stay in front of technology because it changes daily. As for Mustafa's comment and your question, I would like to address both. Having attended both brick and mortar and on-line learning environments, at the college level, I do not see discrimination occurring. Particularly, on line. One cannot judge who one is or what ethnic background based on name only. As in F2F, and online, you learn about the person by what they write and how they speak. Everyone has different sets of values and biases. In research we are taught to leave those behind and concentrate on the topic of research. 6/28/2015 02:53:06 pm
I think that you identified a key contributing factor to the growth of distance education in your last paragraph. You mentioned that technologies that were previously cutting edge have become common. This truth reveals that the technologies being used in distance education are not new but simple more common than they were even a few years ago.
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Jennifer Smith
7/6/2015 02:36:40 am
Naquai,
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April 2016
Author Hello everyone, my name is Naquai Roundtree and I am pursuing my PhD in Education Technology at Walden University. This blog will be based on research, Ideas, and reflections from current courses. Categories |