Elements of Distance Education Diffusion
How has collaborative interaction evolved?
According to Siemens (Laureate, 2008), the future of distance education will increase as online communication increases, as experience with new tools increases, as people grow more comfortable with online discourse and as our abilities to communicate expand to meet with more diverse and global groups. I believe collaboration will also change based on these changes. Present collaboration has mostly been limited to those who are close geographically or when member decide to meet in a joint location. The future of online education has made it easier for groups, at large distances, to be able to meet in a virtual community and share ideas. New tools to facilitate these interactions for online collaboration include blogs, wikis, and virtual conferencing using programs like Skype.
Several blogs with information on collaboration include:
http://www.theappgap.com/reflections-on-the-nature-of-collaboration.html - The author discusses that collaboration requires trust in order to work well. I agree with his statement. People need to trust that they can work better together than as individuals.
Both of the above articles are written by the same author in different years. Both blogs stress the importance of technology and its potential use for collaboration. I agree that technology can be a great benefit for increasing collaboration.
Jason
Reference:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). The Future of Distance Education [Video program]. Available from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4930712&Survey=1&47=8482003&ClientNodeID=984645&coursenav=1&bhcp=1
Hello Jason,
ReplyDeleteThank you for adding the websites. There is so much information available sometimes it is easy to get lost.
Thanks Debi
I often forget about Skype but am now just seeing its potenial for professional collaboration not just for personal use. I can't imagine what the future will hold for us!
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting the additional sites for information.
ReplyDeleteI am a skyper especially with my family. Do you believe that with the social medida and education will create more jobs for our future generation? Or do you believe it will create a desparity among older less techno-savvy job seekers?
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI went to a luncheon the other day. F2F. I listened to many mothers of 18-22 year olds discuss their offsprings ability to use many types of digital tools, but they said they never researched. The world was at their door and all they did was use it as a social network. Very interesting comments. I was wondering if that was a comment others working with teens were in agreement with.