Sunday, 8 September 2013

Distance Education's Evolution


 
Distance education has existed for more than one hundred and fifty years and has had many names, and methods of presentations. Distance Education began in England with Sir Isaac Pitman’s correspondence courses in the 1840’s, continued in the United States with the Chautauqua movement in the 1870’s and as technology evolved so did distance education. In the mid twentieth century television added a new spin to distance education.  The Europeans also made their contribution to distance education with the concept of the Open University. With the proliferation of the Internet the term e-learning was coined.

The term online learning and distance education are now used interchangeably. According to Huett et al (2008) “The growth of online distance learning (elearning) is explosive in almost all sectors, and in many developed and developing countries. Elearning is instantly available, providing timely and on-demand learning access impossible in a traditional training center".

Evolution of Technology and Teaching


Michael Simonson states that “Distance Education: The Next Generation” he presented his definition of distance education as “formal education which is institutionally based and where the learning group, the teacher, the students and the resources are separated by geography, sometimes by time, sometimes by intellect and where technology is used as the instructional media and communication technology to link the resources, the teacher and the learner”

The distance in distance learning has determined how distance education evolved. Before present day technology existed, different methods were used to cover the distance between the learner and the teacher. My personal definition of distance education would be similar to Dr. Simonson’s except for one clarification that I did not see before I viewed his lecture, and that is that there is a difference between distance learning and self-study at a distance.

Distance education is very much set in the way it’s implemented in colleges. College students are able access their assignments and participate in discussions from mobile phone. I envision that the next thrust in distance education is in the K-12 schools. Distance education will affect the way teachers present their lessons to students and the way students interact with the lesson. The term that’s now very familiar to K-12 teachers is the ‘Flipped classroom’ which is a term that represents a blended classroom learning environment, homework in class, lessons at home.

Distance Education’s Evolution

 


References

Distance Learning Timeline Continuum. This multimedia, interactive timeline chronicles the evolution of distance learning from 1833–2009. [Multimedia Program]: Retrieved from Laureate-media.

Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Coleman, C. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 3: K12). TechTrends, 52(5), 63–67.

McCullen, C. Flipped Classrooms: The realization of 21st century digital learning? Blog post retrieved from http://www.all4ed.org/blog/flipped_classrooms_realization_21st_century_digital_learning.

Simonson, M. (2013) "Distance Education: The Next Generation". [Video Podcast] Retrieved from Laureate-media.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson. Chapter 2, "Definitions, History, and Theories of Distance Education" (pp. 32–41 only).

Weinm, J., (2008) The History of Distance Education. Timeline. Retrieved from

           http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the-history-of-distance-education.


 


 

2 comments:

  1. I enjoyed your post. Clear and to the point.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good job on pointing out the flipped classroom. In most schools, flipped classrooms seem to be common these days with the easy access to technology.

    ReplyDelete