Today, I have learnt that distance education is the delivery of instruction to students who are separated from their teachers by time and location. The only key for distance education is technology. Without technology, none of the students who are in distance education can gain anything. Technology is the only key to bridge time and location.
Distance education affects teachers by offering flexible licensing renewal as well as professionla development. It also cause them to rethink of the nature of instruction and provide them an environment where teaching and learning no longer bound by traditional classroom walls.
Distance education also affected education by changing courses available in higher education especially college or university level. Other than that, it also encourages the creation of statewide virtual high school programs, supporting district-wide courses in virtual classrooms. Distance education enabling courses to be offered that might not due to low enrollments.
In addition, I have learnt that there are two distance education support technologies:
a) Synchronous Support Technology - occurs at the same time but different location
b) Asynchronous Support Technology - support time-shifted instruction but at the same or different location
Types of Synchronous Support Technology:
- Telephone technologies
- Video conferencing
- Internet chats
- Internet classroom
Types of Asynchronous Support Technology:
- Phone technologies
- Email
- Electronic discussions / forums
- Online classroom
Finally, our lecturer explained to us about the issues in distance education such as:
- Learning Management Systems
- Teacher and Student Readiness
- Preparation and Classroom Management Time
- Teacher and Student Readiness
- Preparation and Classroom Management Time
- Technical support
- Instructional support
- Copyright Critical Issues for Teachers
- Reinventing the Classroom
- Reinventing the Classroom
As a closure let me tell you about my experience doing this assignment which is to create a blog and write about minimum of 5 weekly reflections on what we have learnt in the class. It was not as easy as I thought earlier. Though it is hard yet I managed to do it and learnt something better about Technology and Math Education in detail. Thanks to my lecturer, course leader and also my friends for supporting me and gave me the opportunity to do this assignment.
Hi Dura. I am glad you managed to finish your weekly reflections successfully. I would like a detailed explanation about the issue of preparation and classroom management time. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteHi Florence. Thanks for the question. Well, as you can see, teachers and students sometimes cant get enough time to prepare things earlier as they think distance education gives them an advantage of procrastinating. Teachers would never know whether their students really have no time for preparing things or come for the online classroom. This can create an issue where both teachers and students to get irritated as well as gaining nothing. I hope that I've answered your question. Thank you.
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