Elements of Distance Education Diffusion

George Siemens discussed the growing acceptance of distance education in today’s corporate and educational spheres, including three possible elements of distance education that are creating more effective learning experiences and giving distance education an identity of its own distinct from F2F courses: (a) global diversity, (b) communication, and (c) collaborative interaction. Do you agree or disagree with his view?
Select one of these three elements for your reflection in this module and respond to the following in your blog:

• How has this element evolved?
• What online tools are available today to facilitate these interactions among learners?

Find at least two blog posts by other educators on this topic and reflect on their positions in your blog. Include links to these other blogs as you critique their ideas.

I agree with George Siemens's view of distance education. It is difficult to choose just one element to reflect upon. Each element builds upon the other.  The way distance education fosters communication, collaborative interaction, and global diversity, it is very distinct from F2F courses. Siemens explains that distance education gives people in the corporate and educational world the ability to communicate with diverse and global groups (Laureate, 2008). Distance education and training benefits corporations by allowing them to interact with different offices around the world at anytime from anywhere. Distance education has triggered the inventing of new communication technologies. Corporations have increased the use of simulations and multimedia games.

Today learners use blogs, vlogs, podcasts, and wikis to foster communication, collaborative interaction, and global diversity. These online tools allow learners to actively participate in learning process. I just discovered that teachers can also use teach with Twitter. The following link is to a blog explaining how teachers are using Twitter to enhance the learning process:

http://mpbreflections.blogspot.com/

Educators may also want to check out a video titled "Teaching in the Age of Participation." This video was posted to a blog (http://mpbreflections.blogspot.com/2011/07/teaching-in-age-of-participation.html) and in it a teacher shares how she uses many different forms of technology that evokes student participation and learning. For example, the speaker explains how she uses cell phones to complete class surveys. This video is very informative for both the corporate and education world.

Reference:

Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Principles of Distance Education. Baltimore: Author