Elements of Distance Education Diffusion

George Siemens discussed collaborative interaction in his video and I agree with him that distance education has increased the collaborative interaction in distance education.  In the past collaborative interaction was only with the people in the same face to face classroom, but with the Internet and online distance education programs you can work with someone that you would not have the ability to work with or for that matter even know if it wasn’t for the evolution of distance education. In my own experience with distance education I feel that the collaborative interaction with instructors and classmates has been enhanced by the use of discussion boards, online blogs, online chats, live chats such as class alive and Skype, and even email. Distance education has definitely expanded the availability of collaborative interaction among students and instructors that would never have had the ability to work and learn together.

Reference:
Simonson, M (2009) Distant Education: The next generation [VOD] Laureate Education, Inc (Producer). Available from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/

Sites visited on collaborative interaction:
http://icoblog.wordpress.com/category/distance-education/
http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/blog/2010/50-free-collaboration-tools/comment-page-1/#comment-13713

Moller, Huett, Foshay, & Coleman (2008) Articles

The three articles by Moller, Huett, Foshay, & Coleman (2008), and Simonson’s video programs all see a need to continue to develop and grow distance education programs and e-learning training. Simonson (Laureate Education, Inc. 2010) defines distance education as “formal education in which the learning group (teacher, students, resources) are separated by geography and sometimes by time.” Simonson stated online e-learning is really self study when done with many online programs. Moller, Huett, Foshay, & Coleman (2008), discussed e-learning as a key trend in training for businesses and a need for a higher quality product built according to “sound ID principles.” The second article discussed the use of distance education in higher education while the third article discussed K-12 distance education. According to Moller, Huett, Foshay, & Coleman (2008) there is a need for the K-12 distance education programs to evolve from “little more than a ‘dumping ground’ for credit recovery as well as a repository for those unable or unwilling to function in the more traditional classroom” (p. 64).

Being a high school teacher I agree with Moller, Huett, Foshay, & Coleman (2008) about the distance education in the high school setting. There needs to more research on the K-12 distance education programs.  

References:

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008, May/June). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 1: Training and Development). TechTrends, 52(3), 70–75.
Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008, July/August). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 2: Higher Education). TechTrends, 52(4), 66–70.
Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W. & Coleman, C. (2008, September/October). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 3: K12). TechTrends, 52(5), 63–67.
Laureate Education, Inc. (2010). Distance Education: The Next Generation. Retrieved from http://laureate.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4715750&Survey=1&47=3096178&ClientNodeID=984645&coursenav=1&bhcp=1