Distance Learning Technologies

Distance education delivers education and instruction to learners who are not physically present in a traditional classroom setting. Historically distance education has existed since 1856 in the form of correspondence courses, but as technology evolved so did the evolution of the media and channels used to deliver distance education, and with the onset of the Internet the face of distance education changed dramatically. Below is a short introduction to two distance learning technologies that have become very useful to instructors who present learning in a distance environment; they are the Podcast and Media Sharing.

Podcasts

A podcast is a type of digital media consisting of an episodic series of audio, video, PDF, or ePub files subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device. The word is derived from the words ‘broadcast’ and ‘pod’ from the success of the iPod, as audio podcasts are often listened to on portable media players. In the world of distance education podcast are used to send instruction from the instructor to the learners who are separated by geography and time. Software like Audacity by Sourceforce.net (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) can be used to create recording, convert the recording into the MP3 format, which makes the recording accessible from any internet site. MP3 is the common audio format for consumer audio. Audacity^® is free, open source, cross-platform software for recording and editing sounds and depending on the length of the recording, podcasts tend to be smaller files sizes and require less bandwidth when published over the Internet. Podcasts can be easily disseminated by email.

View the video, Podcasts in plain English by Common Craft™

 Media Sharing

Media sharing is a form of social interaction on the Internet.  Media sharing websites are website where you can post captured images, videos, podcasts and others and share these media with your colleagues and students.  For all my personal media sharing I use Screencast.com by TechSmith (http://www.techsmith.com/screencastcom.html). Screencast.com by TechSmith invites you to “Store and Share Your Content”. The free subscription offers 2 gigabytes of storage and 2 gigabytes of monthly bandwidth, but you can sign-up for a paid subscription that offers more storage and more bandwidth.  With a Screencast.com account anyone who follows your links can view or hear your files from their web browser anywhere on earth.

View the video from ScreenCast.com™

Example 3: Asynchronous Training

Podcasts and media sharing are very suited for asynchronous training.  The stand-alone step-by-step processes needed in the training modules can be easily recorded in a podcast and stored on a media sharing website like screencast.com. Workers from the different shifts can then access the training at their convenience and as often as necessary.