Module 2 Blog- Elements of Distance Education Diffusion

George Siemens discusses the three elements that distinguish distance education from F2F courses which are global diversity, communication, and collaborative interaction (Laureate Education, 2008). I agree with Siemens views on the evolution of distance education. I think these three elements really stand out as the major difference between F2F and distance education. With distance education, you especially get greater global diversity. Since there are no geographic barriers as compared with F2F, students hundreds of miles apart are able to attend the same courses. Distance education enables us to interact, communicate, and collaborate with students who have different experiences from ourselves by removing geographic barriers. F2F is restricted to students who are able to get to a given geographic area. Distance education provides us with the opportunity to interact, communicate and collaborate with people outside of a given geographic area through the use of online tools like email, discussion boards, blogs, wikis, and Skype.

Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Principles of Distance Education. Baltimore: Author.

The Next Generation of Distance Education

In part one of their three part series, Moller, Huett, Foshay, and Coleman argue that sound instructional design is not typically used when creating online learning experiences, especially in the corporate environment. They suggest that when a needs assessment for training and development is completed that it should focus on the effects that the training will have from the bottom-up starting with the consumer. They also suggest that e-learning should take advantage of technology and learning strategies that would work better in an online environment versus a face-to-face environment. In part two, the authors argue that change is needed in higher education e-learning regarding instructional design. They believe that the change needs to take place at the policy-level to encourage professors to teach e-learning courses. They also point out that both faculty and the learners need to be able to recognize quality instructional design. In part three, they present e-learning in a K-12 format which, to this point has been used to support No Child Left Behind's alternative schooling requirements. This was the part that seemed to be the most relevant to my field as a second grade teacher.In K-12 education, e-learning is used in two ways: either as an addendum to a face-to-face environment (site-based) or virtual learning (non-site based). It needs more research to determine how to effectively use it to educate the younger students while making sure that it addresses other areas of development that traditional schools focus on. In the video by Simonson, he makes arguments similar to those made by Moller, Huett, Foshay, and Coleman stating that the use of distance education will increase and we need to make changes to make it more effective. Simonson also emphasizes that traditional schools will never be completely replaced by virtual learning. I agree with that distance education needs to evolve to the next generation, especially relating to the K-12 setting. I think there is a lot that can be done in K-12 with distance education to help provide enrichment and support for students who may not be able to attend a traditional school or for parents that choose to home school their students using distance education tools.

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