Elements of Distance Education Diffusion COLLABORATION

Collaboration: Collaboration is the most integrated form of group work, and is therefore potentially the most difficult and the most rewarding. Usually, students are working in groups of two or more, mutually searching for understanding, solutions, or meanings, or creating a product. Collaborative learning activities vary widely, but most center on students’ exploration or application of the course material, not simply the teacher’s presentation or explication of it.

Collaborative learning covers a broad territory of approaches with wide variability in the amount of in-class or out-of-class time built around group work. Collaborative activities can range from classroom discussions interspersed with short lectures, through entire class periods, to study on research teams that last a whole term or year. The goals and processes of collaborative activities also vary widely. Some faculty members design small group work around specific sequential steps, or tightly structured tasks. Others prefer a more spontaneous agenda developing out of student interests or questions. In some collaborative learning settings, the students’ task is to create a clearly delineated product; in others, the task is not to produce a product, but rather to participate in a process, an exercise of responding to each other’s work or engaging in analysis and meaning-making.

The World Wide Web has greatly increased our ability to collaborate online. We are able to work in groups with people all around the world. With no time or geographical constraints collaboration is much easier and requires no FTF interaction. Collaborative tools allow students to communicate and work to achieve a common goal without meeting.

Collaboration can be effectively used to improve the quality and quantity of education in online learning environments. There are numerous tools and methods that can be used to facilitate and stimulate collaboration in online education. Some current collaboration tools include e-mail, computer networks, whiteboards, bulletin board systems, chat lines and online presentation tools, a decade or two from now they could include extensive mentoring networks, collaboration effectiveness indices, collaborative learning portals,interplanetary chat networks and free-lance instructor exchange programs. Collaboration entails working together toward a common goal.

Blogs
Elements of Distance Education Diffusion
http://agoswick.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/elements-of-distance-education-diffusion-blog-2/
In this blog the writer feels that as distance education becomes more involved in school and more apparent in our society, one of many things are going to happen. What we’ll soon see are the traditional classrooms moving towards or adapting to a virtual learning style (Goswick, 2010).

Global Diversity
http://www.altilab2005.com/2009/12/
This blog focuses on Global Diversity and states that, true global diversity in education must encompass other nations, races, ethnic groups, and even languages. Face to face instruction is best to develop a relationship where body language, facial expression, and eye contact are vital to developing communication bonds among students with diverse backgrounds, and language.

Distance Learning has existed in the United States for more than 120 years. Not surprisingly though, many in the profession considered it a new phenomenon due largely to the emergence of the Internet. The resulting explosion in online learning was quickly embraced throughout the education and training communities encompassing K-12, higher education and the corporate sector.

Distance Learning can be defined as formal education in which the learning group(teacher, student and resources) are separated by geography and sometimes by time and where technologies are used to link the teacher and Learner (Simonson, 2000).

The main objective of the articles was to describe the major e-learning trends, and the motivating factors (economics and access) for corporate, higher education and k-12 integration of distance learning. These articles outlined the need to evolve distance education in many directions.

Areas of Development

Corporate

1. quality
2. needs assessment, ROI and measurement outcomes
3. the influence and fusion of training, performance support, and knowledge management;
4. the need for better institutions
5. revision of learning models.

Higher Education
Assure that the product of sound professional design practice lead the e-learning enterprise.

K-12
Increase funding of online learning programs and to improve the general resistance to distance learning.

Video
To create equivalency where the learners will learn and acquire the same learning but not in the same way as in a face to face educational setting.

Similarities

All of the articles are similar in that they all discuss the quality, accessibility and cost of distance education. For example, when you start a distance education program, the cost factor is one of the first things considered when planning or implementing distance education programs and how are those costs offset by benefits to the learner. The question of Equivalence is another similarity, will the learner learn and acquire the same learning that he would in a tradition educational setting. This is very important because the idea that education when practice at a distance is the same as face-to-face instruction is really not true. The articles show that you have to consider much more creating a distance education program.

Although these articles offer many similarities they do contrast in other areas, for instance corporate training is focused more on performance support and knowledge management. Whereas, in the educational arena we are more concern with the quality of learning and the need to assess what is learn as well as the instructors ability to facility the learning process.

Without exception, effective distance education programs begin with careful planning and a focused understanding on what is to be learned and student needs. Appropriate technology can only be selected once all the other elements are understood in detail. There is no mystery to the way effective distance education programs develop. They don't happen over night; the evolve through the hard work and dedicated efforts of many individuals and organizations. In fact, successful distance education programs rely on the consistent and integrated efforts of students, faculty, facilitators, support staff, and administrators.

Simonson, M (2000). Distance education: The next generation. Vodcast