Monday, December 26, 2011

Module 2 Post 1 - JSherman

Elements of Distance Education Diffusion

I do agree with George Siemens view that the growing acceptance of distance education today is impacted by global diversity, communication, and collaborative interaction. This blog will focus on communication. Communication has transformed radically over the last two decades. House phones were replaced by cellular phones in the late 1980’s and through the 1990’s to near house phone extinction in the 2000’s. Cell phones have transformed from a mono-functioning voice communication tool to a hand held computer that also is used for placing calls. Similarly written communication has transformed from paper and pencil to key strokes and emails. More recently free online communication tools such as Skype and ooVoo have offered one the ability to real time chat through text or hold a virtual face-to-face via videoconference.


Skype and ooVoo are tools that I use frequently in my personal life as well as professionally in my classroom. It is interesting to think back to my youth and amazement I had when my uncle in Washington, 3,000+ miles from my Pennsylvania home, would call and it sounded as if he was right there in the room with me. My own two children, ages 4 and 3, now talk to their aunts, uncles, and cousins who live outside of Pennsylvania via ooVoo’s free video chatting feature. In my classroom students who are out of class for extended periods of time routinely “Skype into” class and remain current with their studies from home. Steven Anderson, who maintains Web20classroom, briefly discusses Skype in a December 6, 2011 blog. Anderson’s description involves the ease with which Skype will allow educators and administrators to communicate on the go with the mobile features of the program.


Another online communication tool that I am finding useful in my classroom is blogging. I routinely have my student’s blog within our Blackboard classroom. Blogging provides a medium for students to voice their thoughts and practice written communication in a medium less formal then essays. Vicki Davis, the author of the Coolcatteacer blog, also finds blogging to be an effective communication tool. Davis points out the power that peer feedback can have on student work. I would generally agree that students take care to submit their best efforts when they know that their work is going to be on display for and open to feedback from their peers.


Reference


Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Principles of Distance Education. Baltimore: Author.

4 comments:

  1. I truely like the idea of students who are out of school for whatever reasons for a long period of time using Skype to stay connected. What a wonderful idea! Do the students take to the Skyping idea or do you have to encourage them as a teacher? sue beer

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  2. Jsherman, I would love to hear how you use skype and oovoo in the classroom. My students talk about oovoo use at home, but I hear some uses that are far from educational. I won't go into detail.

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