Well it is just after 2:30 am and I am over 1000 miles from home just settling into a hotel room with snow outside the window. (I was in shorts earlier today at home. Regardless of the weather, distance from home or time of day I am able to complete part of my assignments simply by having access to the Internet. I remember distance ed about 20 years ago as waiting for video tapes to arrive by mail or watching a special TV channel at a given time. Now I am accessing information from my professors, communicating with classmates and whoever else stumbles into my virtual world. I can't help but wonder how much more will change over the next 20 years.
I decided to seek out the insight of others on the anytime anyplace concept and found an article by Bruce Bertram, Education Online: Learning Anywhere, Any Time. Bertram compares the view of institutions/schools as the center of education to Ptolemy making Earth the center of the universe. He also compares schools and other parts of our typical education system to paintings in frames and discusses what might happen as we alter those frames. One advantage is the accessibility of courses to more learners and an ability to tie the education portion into the workplace. The later could transform the type of material being taught and perhaps lead to education that is more directly tied to skills needed in the workforce.
The article is short, but I have seen the struggle distance learning has had gaining an acceptance. I also think that distance education offers rays of light to change the life of our education system and learners. I certainly appreciate the anywhere, any time flexibility of my courses.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
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3 comments:
I remember the old distance learning classes. During my undergrad years, I only took one distance education class. It was an English class. I heard from the professor only when I got a grade back on an assignment and I did not know anyone else who was also in the class. It was the only C I ever got in college.
You are certainly right when you say that distance learning has changed radically over the years. Distance learning actually has a lot of history in our educational system. I used to see 16mm reel to reel sepia toned films in high school history class that the teacher had to order from the county several weeks in advance. I've seen students write up assignments and mail them in to the professor to grade and mail back. Talk about getting slow feedback.
This week you must be on spring break. I was on my break last week also many miles from my home. The great thing was that I was able to do my assignments, write in the blogs, communicate with fellow classmates online whenever I wanted to. The same is true for middle and high school students who attend virtual schools. This flexibility of scheduling can work around their individual lives.
If you can call driving all over New England (today through snow) and visiting schools everyday a Spring Break, then yes it is Spring Break from the school at home.
It is nice to have the flexibility to do assignments anytime and anyplace. I am staring out the window at a 5 foot bank of snow right now. My husband and daughter are in Charleston enjoying 80+ degree temperatures, but classwork goes on!
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