Monday, January 12, 2015

Thoughts on distance education

Distance Education: Past, Present, and Future. In reading the Farhad Saba article, I learned that while distance education has become more and more popular, it still needs better organization and structure. Basically, as technology improves, so does educational technology. However, distance education mostly included teacher posting modules that included lectures and assignments. The student self-taught and met needs of the assignment. When I received my masters degree online in 2009 that was basically what I did! There was little teacher-student interaction. Based on the article, the future of distance education is strongly based on how much this changes. This type of teaching defeats the purpose do education as a whole. Teacher - students interaction is essential to the educational model. "Transactional distance" as stated in the article is, "Is determined by the dialogue between the learner and instructor." I found this theory appropriate and functional in regards to the future of distance learning. In comparison, this UNH program includes much more interaction online between instructors and students than my previous online learning experience. It has proven much more beneficial to have access to instructors and the learning has been more in depth due to the interaction via Google+, handouts! and email

1 comment:

  1. This is why you are needed Monica. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen where instructors simply post regurgitated information from semester to semester. Once they post, they disappear, and reappear to grade. It goes beyond simply using technology, and instead, designing the environment to maximize interactions and connections.

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