How old is distance learning?
Distance learning is indeed as old as learning itself. The concept of learning something at a different time and/or location than the deliverer of the education can be traced as far back as the days when the cave dwellers carved symbols on the walls of their caves. Those symbols tell the story of those early people, and have been read across the centuries by archaeologists, scientists and the curious. Today we are certainly separated by time from those ancient people, and distance learning as we know it today is defined by the delivery of education over the distance of location and/or time.
Is distance learning Greek to you?
Looking ahead from the era of cave dwellers to the more modern time of the Greek teachers and philosophers, circa 360 B.C, we discover that the learned people of the time expressed concern about the new fangled learning modality called the ‘written word.’ Evidently the teachers were not happy about their words being written down and then read by someone in a different location or time – how would they know that any learning was actually taking place?
Is "traditional education" sacred?
As travelers through time, we can now take yet another leap all the way to around 60 A.D. An apostle by the name of Paul began to educate followers of the Christian faith through the letters or epistles he wrote and sent out to the people in the distant villages and nomadic camps. These letters were instructional documents telling the people of the Messiah – and the people read them and learned in a different location and at a different time than their teacher, Paul.
Does distance correspond to learning?
Once again traveling through the time and distance of history, we arrive at the 1700s and 1800s, when there was a lot of activity under the umbrella of Distance Learning. Correspondence courses were offered on both sides of the pond – the first notable ones were courses designed to teach a new method of taking notes called “The New Shorthand.” These courses were offered in Britain
and the United States to thousands of students through the mail. Schools, colleges, and organizations were founded based on the idea of students learning subjects, not at the foot of the scholars, but through the mail, through reading, and through corresponding with their teachers at different times.
Shocking changes take place!
With the advent of the information age in the 20th and 21st Century, Distance Learning has taken on a whole new meaning. During the last century we saw an amazing expansion of electronic media, which were easily adapted to the needs of distance education students and teachers. For example, did you know that, in the 1920s, well over one hundred radio stations were launched at universities to assist in the learning process? With the introduction of television, college courses offered via distance delivery increased at an even greater speed.
The Reality of Distance Learning
The Information Age, as the 21st century has been dubbed by some, is ripe with opportunity for distance learning modalities. Computers have changed the face of what is a very old, very traditional kind of learning – that of learning at different times and/or in different locations. Online learning can be described as simply as students corresponding with their instructors through e-mail, or as complex as entire classrooms of students interacting through bulletin boards, asynchronous discussions, and the use of multimedia tools. There is software that allows the instructor to track student progress through the course, Web-based programming that will allow students and instructors to check into class anywhere, anytime.
Fiinally, we need to look at another phenomenon of human beings: that need to belong to a community, socializing, getting to know each other. This can be challenging in an online classroom, where students are separated by time and location, as well as a number of other factors like life experience. Community building is very important to the success of a student in an adult learning environment. Because adult learners are naturally sociable, we, as administrators and instructors in the online educational environ, need to provide students with the means to interact on a level other than in the classroom.
Enter Web 2.0
Today's online tools offer many opportunities to socialize with others both within the learning environment and outside of it. The Institute for Instructional Excellence considers this community to be foundational in their programs. Every opportunity is given for peer learning and social support. This is one of the many things that make this Institution excel!
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