Distance “Leaning”

Yes, you read it right! In today’s active, hectic, busy, double income lifestyles that most of us live, we are trying to find time to make more money. One way is to have a Bachelor's degree or higher. One job I applied for several years ago required a Masters Degree. They did not care in what. I was bold and asked “Why?”  They told me that they market that every employee in the organization has a Masters or higher degree. They had forty job openings and could not find enough people to fill them.

I took a similar job with a different company doing the same thing and this gave me the experience and financial means to go back to school. BUT, I traveled throughout the United States every other week. I could not take traditional classes, and the distance education I was familiar with consisted of correspondence through the mail with text books.  Still, this was a better alternative than to do nothing. So, I leaned toward distance education. Eventually, I came to find out that distance learning was much more advanced than what I was familiar with from the early 1990’s.  Of course, we have the internet now and eBooks.

Many people I know who are considering returning to school for higher degrees have been leaning towards distance education in one form or the other. What do I mean by forms? There are synchronous and asynchronous methods of education. The synchronous method is taking classes at the same time but in different places, whereas the asynchronous method is different times and different places. This defines Distance Education as education between a teacher and student at the same or different times but not at the same place. According to Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Learning, “Separation of the Student and the teacher is a fundamental characteristic of distance education”. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009, p. 27)

A deeper look at distance education can glean a multifaceted approach to education. The professors can create a non-traditional lecture with a Power Point, a screen cast, or a video, all with audio for the student. The communication can be traditional postal mail, email, chat, or video chat as some examples. The books can be electronic, printed, or audio. The scenarios are limited by our imagination and technology.

Who would have thought a few years ago that I would be sitting at a restaurant, reading a book on my phone while waiting for my wife and children to join me? Our technology is small and portable, fast and expansive. I believe in the future we will still have brick and mortar schools, but that distance education will be the predominate form of education. Distance education will also be more interactive for students with special needs who need to be cared for at home. I believe that the schools will have the telecommunication ability to stream interactive classrooms to the student at home.  

Reference:

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distan