Distance Education and Global Diversity

Distance Education and Global Diversity

George Siemens made some good points on his distance education in today’s corporate and educational spheres.  I do agree with his viewpoints. Global diversity is very new and innovative to the technology world. Years ago, global diversity was unheard of and if it was it was very expensive and most colleges did not offer this service. However, with the ever-changing world of technology the educational field has came leaps and bonds.  Global diversity is much common with the use of today’s technology and it is commonly used in classrooms whether it is elementary school or college courses.

Global diversity has evolved to meet the needs of not only the English speaking world, but every person across the world can now get an education through distance education.  According to Education blog, Global Diversity online university such as Walden who has joined with Laureate Group are now affiliated with many colleges throughout the world to offer online courses, but these do not always focus on global diversity, they are geared more toward the diverse Americans. As distance education evolves more and more so will global diversity.  Maybe one day in the need future every person in the world will be able to get the education they want (Global Diversity, 2009). 

There are many online tools that help with online education, some of these are Skype, and DimDim, these tools are free to use.  We also have blogs, wiki’s, email, online discussions, online collaboration tools, such as googledocs, videoconferencing websites, and virtual field trips just name a few.  Each one of these can be used by any online student who has access to them (Is Global Diversity an Element of Distance Education?, 2010).

 

References:

Global Diversity. (2009, December 31). Retrieved December 28, 2010, from Education Blog: http://www.ablsc.com/distance-education/topic-global-diversity/

Is Global Diversity an Element of Distance Education? (2010, October 10). Retrieved December 28, 2010, from Education Blog: http://www.ablsc.com/distance-education/is-global-diversity-an-element-of-distance-education/

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

Distance Education

Blog

Education will always be evolving and ever changing and education will evolve into the next generation in one way or another.   There will be many factors involved with moving education on to the next step, some of those factors will be positive, and the rest will be a learning experience. “The enthusiasm and demand for e-learning development far outstrips the available supply of people with the competency to develop it” (Moller, Foshay, & Huett.2008). It will be very important that those who are developing educational information will be fully trained to do so. 

Training professionals is very important when bringing education into the next generation. The problem with the next generation is the professionals bring education to the next generation may not be trained or have little training on the information they are attempting to convey.

 “E-Learning allows for learning strategies that may not be possible in a classroom or other traditional environments” (Moller, Foshay, & Huett.2008).  Offering e-learning is new inventive way for professionals to bring information to students of all ages from around the world.  All three readings make valid point on distance education and all three reading I agree with all.

“Since distance education programs theoretically can serve remote learners as well as they serve local ones, even institutions with isolated services are in competition”( Moller, Foshay, & Huett.2008).  Distance education is in such great demand that even community colleges are offering classes online. For example, my daughter was attending East Tennessee State University in 2007 and they had just started distance education at that time. The classes offered were through distance education but the students had to pay extra fees if they took a distance education courses. However, now the university has complete degree offered through distance education without any additional charge.

“Web-based instruction has the potential for never-before-seen levels of personal customization” ( Moller, Foshay, & Huett.2008).  I agree with the above statement being able to have web-based instruction has enabled me to takes classes via the internet and still have time for a full time job and my family. Taking courses online may be hard at times but the benefits always outweighs the downfalls.

References:

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.

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008, July/August). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 2: Higher Education). TechTrends, 52(4), 66–70.

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.

Introduction

   My name is Lou Ann Morris, I am attending Walden University.  This blog is sat up for my program of study which is EdS in Technology.