Engaging Learners with New Strategies and Tools

Strategies and Tools in Distance Education

Determine which technological tools and strategies are best for involving learners in building content knowledge, engaging in communication with peers and instructors, and working on authentic, collaborative, problem-based tasks in the online environment.




One strategy that's best for students is that they, Durrington, Berryhill, & Swafford (2006) build interactive relationships among themselves and with the instructor also helps bridge the physical and psychological gap that occurs in online courses. Doing this will lessen the stress of not knowing anything (pg. 190). Being in an online environments can have one feeling isolated and alone. Building relationships will allow the student to have someone that is experiencing the same things to a certain extent.


Also, to support student interactivity in an online environment, Durrington, Berryhill & Swafford (2006) state, the learning environment must be supportive, open, and respectful. The instructor should in the beginning of the course give a detailed syllabus outlining the expectations for each assignment and how you should interact with your peers. There should also be a discussion area that allows for questions where the instructor and peers can respond to one another. All people should participate in this area, the instructor should answers question. The instructors presence should be known within the course.


The instructor as well as the students should ask questions related to their posts. If the instructor poses the question, the question should be in such a way Durrington, Berryhill & Swafford (2006) that all students feel comfortable in responding. The instructor should challenge the student to do more research. In this online environment we don't think to send a private email showing appreciation toward an in-depth response that was given to a post. This will support future participation and enhance the quality and depth of overall interactions within the course.


Overall, the instructors presences needs to be active in order for the students to feel comfortable in an online setting. This type of learning is different than the traditional setting and it offers the same type of results. The students need to interact with one another and need to be kind. The online classroom is different in that the learners are not at the same place at the same time. Regardless of that learning can be achieved if the students are given guidelines and standard to follow. They should know that their interaction with one another is a key part of the online standard.

Principles of Distance Education

As you all may know I am in school at Walden University. Currently, I am taking two courses. One course, Principles of Distance Education is allowing us to use our blog to discuss our assignments. We have been placed in groups. My group consists of 3 members including Peggy Creighton and Erin Mitchell, and me.

Assignment
After reading the three articles by Moller, Huett, Foshay, and Coleman, and watching or listening to the Simonson videos, compare and contrast the reasons these authors believe there is a need to evolve distance education to the next generation. Do you agree with their positions? Why or why not?

My Response
Moller, Huett, Foshay, Coleman, and Simonson believe there is a need to evolve distance education to the next generation because as time moves forward learners become more advanced. Coleman stated that distance education has been around for centuries or decades. For instance, the matchbook covers (be a detective online), correspondence schools, and distance education have offered e-learning to assist those people that want to learn other than using a conventional system.

Simonson says, today, distance education is widely adopted and approaching critical mass in society. With this growth, education is going to have to fit the learner. As a society, we are moving toward individualized learning, and distance education will provide that for the individual. In the k-12 environment, years ago there were no computers in the classroom, now each room has at least five. The education has to be geared toward the learner. The youth of today have the Internet, cell phones, video games, just to name a few. Having the variety of technologies, the education will have to adapt on order to meet the needs of the learners.

I do agree with their positions. The students that I teach are somewhat advanced and in order to grasp their attention the education needs to fit their interests. These student use the Internet and cell phones to interact with one another. Why can't they use these mediums when it comes to education?

Distance Education: The Next Generation

Resources
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. Use the Academic Search Premier database, and search using the article's Accession Number: 33281719.

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 2: Higher education). TechTrends, 52(4), 66-70. Use the Academic Search Premier database, and search using the article's Accession Number: 33991516.

Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Coleman, C. (2008, September/October). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 3: K12). TechTrends, 52(5). 63-67.