Week 1 Reflection

What is your definition of Distance Learning? How do you think Distance Learning can be applied in K-12 schools?

Distance Learning, in the simplest terms, is the instructor and students are not physically together in a classroom. Course objectives are met through many vehicles of communication in distance learning such as Television, Video Conferecing to satellite locations, Online/ Internet-based learning, etc. Honestly the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the words "Distance Learning" is an internet based course. If I had to answer this question 5 years ago, I would probably refer to it as a correspondance course where you basically work on your own with no timeline, with all work having to be submitted at the end of the semester.

For example, I attended Delaware County Community College for 2 years to attain my Associates Degree in Business Administration. Because I was working full time (pretty much 50 hours a week), it was very difficult for me to take a full courseload of 12 credits. It would mean me having to go to school every single night and take a 3 hour class. I had the option at the time to enroll in something called a "TV Course." Basically, the teacher taped themselves lecturing the class for that week and it was aired on PBS at like 3 am. The student (me) was responsible for videotaping the class, watch it, and do assignments that related to it. Now, as skilled as I am using computers, VCRs and I don't mix. So you can deduct from that, that every week something got screwed up when I tried to tape the class. Then I found out that we could borrow the tapes from the college library, watch them there and do the work. After finding that our, I of course waited until the last week of school,watched all the tapes, and handed in all of my work. The tapes were worthless. I could have just done all the work without them. And that's what I did for the 2nd TV Course I took. The classes were of no value to me because I didn't have any time of interaction.

In terms of K-12 education, distance learning can happen in a variety of ways. In a formal classroom setting, teachers can use video conferening and internet based field trips to teach concepts. Distance Education in K-12 learning can be very useful to parents who have decided to home school their children. They can use internet resources to help students interact with other Home Schoolers, providing that form of communication that is sometimes lacking in that environment. Kindergarten through 12th grade is such a broad range of years, learning styles, etc., that it is hard to group them all in when answering this question. I believe that in early elementary, teachers can start introducing distance learning to students. In middle school, teachers could use internet based resources to communicate with students, in turn creating a "blended" learning environment. I believe that Distance Education, especially Online Courses, are the wave of the future for high schoolers. What happens if a student is really interested in a particular subject and wants to learn more about it but his school doesn't offer it? A solution could be that a County course is offered and a few students from many high schools can participate in an online course. I think that students should learn how to communicate and learn online while in high school, because it's an obvious trend that populating college campuses.

Any thoughts???