I responded Module 2

This Module, I responded to Bradley Gogan and Lynne Butkiewicz.

Communicado

The internet has drastically changed the ways that we communicate. There is IMing, social networking, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, iReporting, Sykpe and virtual worlds. As the means of communicating online continue to develop and evolve so does the way that we integrate them into distance education. Siemen's spoke of how the more that people got comfortable with all the different ways to communicate online, the more they were able to adapt from the usual f2f classroom to an online environment. The evolution of communication online started with AOL. AOL provided its users with chat and IM and this was the beginning of a revolutionary change in the way that we communicate. I think that online communication is just beginning to peak but there are many more new types of communication that is still waiting to be diffused into our everyday lives. If a professor maximizes the tools of communication that are available then students can, share work, talk, text, type, collaborate, tweak and change, listen, comment and announce their learning advances. These types of communication breakdown into two categories synchronous and asynchronous communication. Synchronous happens instantly, like IMing and asynchronous happens over time, such as blogging :) Each of these types of communication have their benefits to distance education and I think to have an 80% asynchronous and 20% synchronous environment would facilitate the best learning. Students are more likely to process the information and share it with a different intensity, if they have time to do so. Instant conversation is also important and should be included but at a disproportionate rate.

Great Technology Article

I have been talking about this since I read about it in a class two years ago...won't this make teaching English, Grammar and Writing, so very, very different!

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/06/18/natural.user.interface.mouse/index.html?hpt=C2

Postings

This week I made comments on Richard's blog and Lynne's blog.

Not too Crafty!!!

I think that Distance Education has been widely accepted but now the necessary foundations need to be recognized and adhered to in the class structure. The two concepts that are similar but poignant in our need to evolve are the equivalency theory and the craft approach. Both of these concepts have similar foundations, which are that lessons from the classroom cannot be duplicated online; they have to assume the format of online learning. I think that distance learning for businesses, higher education and even k-12 are growing at an exponential rate but unless the lessons are proactive in their design Distance learning will lose its credibility. I think it is important that programs such as the one that I am enrolled in exist to educate educators in the intricate differences in teaching online. That is not to say that distance education isn’t also going to change drastically while it is being shaped and that is the greatest challenge when you are working with technology. It is important to keep abreast of the changes but also make sure that we are buying into the right resources, the ones that are going to diffuse and go the distance (no pun intended).

Blog

I am very excited to blog!!!

Katherine Crawford