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
|
Archives
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 |