Three Important Things

Three things I had not known about Distance education:

History of Distance Education:
Like many of you, I am fascinated with the long history of distance education – something I knew little about. It had not occurred to me that aspects of our distance education experience have been around since the 17th century. Deborah mentioned the idea that we Cometeers, meeting online each week, have a lot in common with farmers tuning in to educational programming on their radios in the 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s. I like that imagery.

Cost of Education:
This section of the article hit home for me in an uncomfortable way. I think a lot of my teachers would ascribe to the position that our district has dumped a lot of money into “doing the same with more expensive means.” While there are a handful of practitioners in my district who have adopted a social science approach to using technology, the most prevalent mindset is reductionist. If I stay in my current position next year, my goal is to find more opportunities to use technology to make learning more meaningful for teachers and students. I would love to find a way to introduce distance learning for teacher professional development rather than the usual large group in-service presentations.

Legitimacy of Distance Learning:
While I knew that pursuing a Master’s degree online would not seem legitimate to some of my friends and colleagues, I had not given much thought to the idea that time would be on my side. In the past two years I have observed a happy change of attitude among a lot of people I encounter. My daughter and several of my friends have completed online courses. I don’t spend as much time defending the rigor of the work we are doing because so many more people are initiated. I am seeing, in an anecdotal way, the steady growth of a method of delivering instruction that contributes to the strength of our nation by providing access to people who might not otherwise have it.