Siemens (2008) stated there opposed to the tradition face-to-face delivery of education there are three components of distance education which can offer a successful learning experience. The three components are global diversity, communication, and collaborative interaction. Collaborative interaction is the component which I believe has evolved the most. Online collaboration has changed the face education. What once was a teacher being hired to go to a college and teach in front of a class of students is now that same teacher monitoring the class from the computer.
Within the courses of Walden, we use a variety of technology to gain an education as well as be an active member of an online community. According to Sheehy (2011), collaboration within online distance education has the potential to increase learning as well as satisfaction if done well but doing well is important and challenging. Students complain that they do not like not having the advantage of having the teacher there to talk to and discuss problems with face-to-face. However, online courses are finding new ways to get students engaged in the learning experience. Online classes have surely evolved from just the discussions. Colleges are now imploring the use of resources such as blogs, wikis, email, and video conferencing. I believe that this is not the end online advancements. As technologies continue to be offered, colleges and universities will adopt them so that students wanting the convenience of distance learning will be able to communicate more like a face-to-face class from their personal computer.
Sheehy, M. (n.d.). A Teacher Writes. Retrieved March 30, 2011, from WordPress: http://ateacherswrites.wordpress.com/2007/04/02/collaboration-at-a-distance-a-case-for-collaborative-learning-in-distance-education/
DVD: Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Principles of Distance Education.
3 comments:
Hi Belinda,
Collaborative interaction has changed the face of education for sure. Walden has provided us with various ways to interact with each other. Discussion forums, wikis, and blogs are a few of the ways that we have interacted. These types of discussions have caused online classes to evolve successfully. However, I believe that there will always be a need for face-to-face delivery of education. Great post!
Sandra
Belinda,
I think, while discussion and collaboration are certainly possible in a traditional classroom, they are certainly much more engage for studetns in an online format. Studetn thrive on engagement with the content and with peers. Successful engagement can occur in face to face discussion, but there is something about interacting with peers through the computer that seems to make it that much more enjoyable for students. Blog, wikis, and other online tools, as you mentioned, help to foster collaboration and communication while providing incentives and engagement for students. Well done.
Adam
I also posted about collaborative interaction. The means of being able to collaborate within distance education now reach far beyond what it was before. Methods such as blogs like we are doing now not only provide learners with new experiences, but they are also much more engaging. Many of my past courses has focused on discussion postings as the main and sometimes only means of collaboration. It's quite refreshing to interact with other learners in this manner.
Thanks for sharing!!
Ashley
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