Evolution of Distance Education

Moller, Huett, Foshay, and Coleman (2008) believe that there is a need to evolve distance education. They state two forces that dictate why we should pursue a change. First, is the “reexamination of the process of learning” (Moller, Foshay, Huett, 2008, p 74). Our education has moved from filling students with knowledge to a problem solving environment. Yet, students are typically still taught the way they were when education began. The benefit of distance education is that it focuses on “thinking, creativity, collaboration, dialogue, and argumentation that are directed toward solving ill-structured problems” (p.74). The second force is a “reconstruction by contemporary views of what constitutes instruction” (74). Today, there is more acceptance of alternative way toward teaching and learning. Distance learning, at a higher education level, makes better use of community than the typical classroom. All students are expected to participate is discussions and are supported by both their classmates and professor. However, this type of learning is not conducive for every learner. The authors suggest that our current education system may be producing students that are capable of interacting with knowledge to learn, but they are not proficient at working with others to build knowledge. These two forces are part of the drive and thinking behind the evolution of distance education.

I do agree with the thinking behind these forces. Education still follows a one size fits all approach. There are teachers that are trying to move away from this type of thinking, but many are still content with the status quo. Not only does learning need to be more individualized, but we need to move learning into a more problem solving based approach. It has been said that we are preparing students for jobs that have not even been created or thought of yet. We need to teach children how to find information and then how to use to solve problems. We do not have information to teach that has not been developed at this point. There is definitely a need to evolve distance education to meet the needs of both the student and the needs of society.

Appalachian State University has created their curriculum in a virtual worls called the AET zone. Students move and interact within a virtual world for classes and discussion. They are taking online learning to another level. For more information an article is available at http://www.lesn.appstate.edu/edtech/IT_articles/NILE_A_190834_O.pdf

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008, May/June). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 1: Training and Development). TechTrends, 52(3), 70–75.