Distance Learning:
Trends, Questions and More Questions
"Sharing the Vision: High Performance Technology for High
Performance Learning"
Columbus, Ohio -- May 6, 1997
http://www.stg.brown.edu/pub/slides/roger/DistEd.html
Roger B. Blumberg
Scholarly Technology Group
Brown University
From Distance Education to Tele-Learning
1. Traditional Distance Education Model:
Broadcast of live and pre-recorded content w/ and w/o supporting printed and
electronic networked and non-networked
materials, w/ and w/o synchronous/non-synchronous feedback. Let's look at a
perhaps non-exemplary example.
2. The "Traditional" Web Model: Course delivery using Internet,
Web and proprietary protocols (e.g. streaming audio & video).
3. Cooperative Learning Model: Distributed Projects and Curricula.
4. Collaborative Work/Learning Model:
Application sharing, collaborative document preparation, project-oriented
conferencing, etc.
Observations:
- Students enjoy and can make
substantive use of connections to the worlds outside of school.
- Teacher training and support
is critical for transforming television watching and Web surfing into
distance
learning.
- Delivery of audience-appropriate
printed and electronic supporting materials is critical to
transforming television watching and Web surfing into distance learning.
- The clearer the instructional goals and apriori expectations
of a unit of distance education, the better the outcomes.
Questions for DE/Tele-Learning Providers:
- Does enthusiasm for live broadcasts (the [Ricki] Lake Effect)
obscure the fact that most successful teaching practices and
curricula are highly refined (i.e. produced)?
- To what extent does/should distance learning
complement/supplement/supplant current
school curriculum/activities?
- When does communication (i.e. questions from the audience via
telephone, e-mail, Web-based conference) become
bona fide instruction/learning?
- When is it desirable that
communication be synchronous and when asynchronous
(again, the Lake Effect may provide distortion)?
- How does our talk about distance
education compare with the 1960s edutech discussions of
"programmed instruction"?
When we talk about particular examples
Distance Education,
are we talking about
LEARNING or
TRAINING?
We know the traditional DE model
works pretty well for the latter
(e.g. Sunrise Semester, and the Barbri Bar Review),
so this leads to yet another question:
What is the difference between desired cognitive outcomes in distance education
and the desired cognitive outcomes in commercial television production? The
answer will very much determine when to choose a distance education approach, and
what to look for in a distance learning program.
Moving Beyond Programming:
How does participation in DE differ from watching TV?
- For training we program.
- For learning, what do we do?
Does Distance Education work?
- For teaching to The Test, we program.
- For teaching w/o The Test, what do we do?
Is Distance Education efficient?
- To deliver a free-standing technology to different
classrooms, we program.
- To deliver networked technologies to different "classrooms"
simultaneously, what do we do?
Is Distance Education cost-effective?
- To measure the effects/effectiveness of access to
an object, we program.
- To measure the effects/effectiveness of access to a transfinite
network, what do we do?
Does Distance Learning improve education?
- To use technology in school to meet the demands of a changing
economy, we can program (e.g. computer literacy).
- To use technology in school to make teaching and learning better
and richer what can we do?