Distance Learning Defined

Before starting this course, my understanding and personal definition of distance learning involved someone taking a course or class online. I am not a stranger to distance learning, having taken my first online class in undergrad back in 2001. It was definitely a lesson in time management for me. I enjoyed the course that summer. It was different. My experience taking that course back then is what prompted me to consider enrolling in online degree program.

After watching the video Distance Learning: The Next Generation with Dr. Michael Simonson, I learned that my definition of distance learning was too broad. My definition wasn’t wrong, it was just not as detailed. Dr. Simonson explained distance learning as “formal education in which the learning groups are separated by geography and sometimes time.” The groups in this case refer to the teachers, students, and resources (i.e. content). The definition is further expanded by breaking it up into four components; institutionally based, separation of teacher and student, interactive telecommunications, and the sharing of data, voice, and video (Simonson et al, 2009).

Also this week I have learned that distance learning has been around since the 1800’s. Viewing the “Distance Learning Timeline Continuum”, I learned that distance learning first began with correspondence study. This is where an ad was place in the newspaper for an educational opportunity and students and teachers would correspond with each other through the mail. Which I guess makes since because of the lack of advanced technology back then, they only had the mail system. The original target of distance learning programs was adults with prior commitments such as social, work, or family related (Simon et al, 2009). This fact holds true even today. I was fascinating to see how far distance learning had come over the past century. I just never thought of distance learning being anything more than digital. In addition to correspondence study, there was also electronic communications and distance teaching universities.

In the future, I see distance learning becoming more common place in our society. I am siding with Simonson’s view, in which he states that distance learning “will grow significantly, but won’t replace traditional schools.” Adding to this is Rogers’s diffusion of innovation theory, which simply is predicting the growth and patterns of new ideas and technology. Simonson (2010) goes on to say that distance learning is already passed the promotion stage and is in the nurturing stage.

Overall, I’ve taken in a tremendous amount of new information regarding distance learning. This past week’s lesson had given me a whole new outlook. Distance learning is more than just being digital. There is a lot of history and theory behind it. After this week, I am learning that I am just getting stated.

Here is my mind map below.



References
"Distance Learning Timeline Continuum" Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com

Simonson, M. (2010). Distance Learning: The Next Generation. [Video].Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.