Three interesting facts D.E. week 1

I never connected the early correspondence form of education with what has evolved today to eLearning. I also was amazed by the reminder that print is a form of technology. It is so interesting how it provided for the early forms of eLearning and today many are striving to move away from print to electronic forms of media.

I also found it very interesting that there was such a high level of fraud in the commercial sector that the Federal Government stepped in and removed financial support. This appears to be part of the reason many look upon distance education as not the equal to face to face education. I found this statement, "[there is] overwhelming research evidence there is no “statistically significant difference” between the effectiveness of distance and face-to-face instruction," very interesting. I have held the opinion that many distance educational opportunities are inferior to face to face opportunities. Ultimately I guess the quality of the experience lies in the instructor, the expected outcomes and the rigor of the course.

I had no idea that there was (and still is) radio distance education. It makes sense that today's podcasts get their start from radio. I just never made the connection. I think the point that is made on page 5 that there is controversy over the effectiveness due to the one way nature of radio and podcasting. I think one of the exciting aspects of the two way web is the ability to use podcasts in conjunction with social media such as blogs, forums, twitter, etc. to make the experience interactive and two way.