George Siemens in his discussion of distance education notes three elements of e-learning that have the potential to create both more effective learning experiences and create a unique flavor quite apart of F2F learning. Communication in the e-learning environment plays a key role in fulfilling that potential.

The anonymous and asynchronous nature of those communications has been highlighted as a distinguishing characteristic of distance education. Communications have evolved incredibly over the years. The first distance learning programs were correspondence courses. Classes have been broadcast over television. Much of this communication was either one-way or very slow. The advent of personal computers and the internet brought rapid and significant changes.

The basic discussion or bulletin board allows asynchronous communication. Chat rooms and instant messaging allow synchronous auditory communications. Technologies such as Skype now allow synchronous auditory and visual communications. Technologies such as podcasts and downloaded videos allow one-way communications which, unlike F2F lectures, can be reviewed time and time again.

These avenues of communication have completely reshaped distance learning. They can create rich and diverse collaborative communities of learners. No doubt these avenues of communicate will continue ro be developed or exploited in new ways. Cloud computing may be one major development in distance education. Organizations such as Global Classroom (http://www.globalclassroom.us/) are leading the way in this area. The increased use of PDAs and smart phones could bring the next wave of changes to communication in distance education.


Jeffries, M. The History of Distance Education Retrieved from http://www.digitalschool. net/edu/DL_history_mJeffries.html

Nasseh, B. (1997). A brief history of distance education. Retrieved from http://www.seniornet.org/edu/art/history.html

Oblinger, D. G., Barone, C. A., & Hawkins, B. L. (2001). Distributed education and its challenges: An overview. American Council on Education and Educause.

Siemens, G. (2005). Asynchronous. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/doing/asynchronous.htm

Siemens, G. (2005). Synchronous. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/doing/synchronous.htm

Taking my very limited experience, one and a half years as a doctoral student at Walden University, in distance education into consideration I would side with Moller, Huett, Foshay, and Coleman’s (2008) view that distance education is not fulfilling its potential. Of the 13 courses I have or am currently taking few have used some of the more interesting technologies the web affords. This is particularly surprising as Walden is a completely online university, unlike more traditional universities that may also offer online courses.

Most courses involve reading, watching videos or listening to podcasts, writing by oneself and being involved in a discussion board. This is essentially taking a traditional lecture-based class and putting it on the web. I have taken only two classes that have required the use of technologies outside the 'classroom' or university ‘walls.’ Those two classes required collaborative work through programs such as Google Docs, creating a blog, performance assessments using various technologies to demonstrate understanding, and creating a mind web using mapping software. We were also encouraged in those two classes to utilize a vast array of other technologies to help our studies. These classes clearly went beyond copying a lecture-format into an online environment.

These classes provide excellent examples of Simonson’s (2000) equivalency theory. Both classes matched desired learning outcomes and experiences and matched them with appropriate technologies.

To be fair to our species we do seem to be slow to catch on at times. I was recently reading an old Discover magazine (an article by Kaku, 2005 and a letter from Discover preceding his article) from our library’s discards. It was about the unfulfilled promise of ‘string theory’ to explain how the universe works. It is a very ‘sexy’ theory. It has hidden dimensions, parallel universes, and different forms of vibrating strings that make up everything in the universe. Many scientists have been toiling away for over 30 years proving the theory mathematically. Many thousands of hours and millions of dollars in resources have been spent studying string theory. It is, however, to date, and probably ever in the view of many respected physicists, untestable. Distance learning may be quite similar to string theory in that it’s new, shiny and attractive and fulfilling its potential.

I include this analogy with string theory only to illustrate the foibles of our brilliant, diverse and occasionally amusing race. I think it is important that we laugh a little at ourselves and relish in the wisdom of George Orwell who said, “On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.”

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.

Kaku, M. (2005). Testing string theory. Discover, 26(8), 30-37.

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.

Simonson, M. (2000). Making decisions: The use of electronic technology in online classes. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 84, 29–34.

Stringing along a theory. (2005). Discover, 26(8), 29.

I attended a Robert Marzano workshop last summer with several colleagues. While there I attended a seminar on clickers (classroom response systems) and got rather energized about using them in my class to help streamline formative assessments. After returning from the conference I started researching clickers and found that several companies that made them also manufactured interactive whiteboards. After finding a company I liked we brought them in to do an initial demo for myself and several other teachers. Nobody seemed too excited so the principal and I decided to schedule a full day of demonstrations to allow more people to see the whiteboards and clickers in a slightly longer presentation.

Needless to say after the presentation I wanted to get a board and set of clickers for my classroom. The principal found some grant money we could use and we purchased an interactive whiteboard with rolling wheels (the best way to get the grant money was to allow other people to use the board)and set of clickers. I thought oh well there goes the board. Have wheels will travel. To my surprise nobody has asked to use it in their room! Our world language teacher has used the clickers several times and has come in to my class to use the interactive whiteboard on two occasions. But that is it. This really surprised me. I figured people would love the whiteboards even if they weren’t interested in clickers.

I think the longer demo certainly had peoples’ attention. Several did not see relevance to either the age group or subject they taught. This is definitely a sales issue. The sales reps who came were not ex-teachers. I think if they had been they could have provided more practical examples how the boards could have benefited these teachers. The impression left from their sales pitch was they were trained in some of the bells and whistles of the board and software, but not how to show a variety of teachers how the boards could make teaching, record keeping and lesson development more streamlined and dynamic.

Boosting teacher confidence with the software would be the greatest challenge. I use a lot of technology in my teaching and I found the software slow to learn, even after taking several online courses. It is not as intuitive or “self-teachable” as say Word or PowerPoint. The best way to build confidence would be to walk teachers through the software biting off little bits at a time. Helping them create several basic flipcharts (similar to a slideshow, but much more dynamic in its abilities) would certainly instill confidence.

Once they have experienced the satisfaction of creating and using a basic flipchart of their own, building their depth of knowledge of the software would be much easier. From there the ARCS model can become a loop feeding back on itself.

My network hasn’t changed the way I learn. Most of how I learn is still reading and writing. I don’t sit in a lecture or sit down and discuss topics with classmates or professors. I have asynchronous discussions which, while very different for me a “face-to-face” native , not a digital native, has its advantages. It allows more time to collect your thoughts and compose responses. My network has vastly expanded my access to knowledge as well as the views and opinions of many from around the world.

But it also has disadvantages in creating a feeling of strong “connection” with a learning community. It is odd to me Siemens and Downes chose the term “connectivism” for their ideas about learning. Not seeing or spending time in the physical presence of classmates and professors creates, for me at least, a much less connected feeling in comparison to my land-based undergraduate and graduate experiences.

The digital tools that best facilitate my learning are a word processor and the virtual library at Walden. A word processor, for those who never had to use a typewriter, is such a time saver. It also makes it much easier to organize and reorganize my thoughts within a document. The Walden library makes scholarly research so easy.

I recall spending hours and days in the “stacks” at the Penn State library during grad school hunting down articles. Culling through almanacs filled with abstracts you might find a few articles that fit your research topic. Then you traveled to the stacks to find the journal. I can’t tell you how infuriating it was to find numerous time that the journal issue I need had somehow sprouted legs and walked off from the shelves!

When I have a question that needs answering I access that information online, either through research articles, blogs, wikis or books. I must say I don’t like reading off a computer screen and usually print out (sorry trees) or purchase hard copies. As far as learning it, which I am assuming means to store that information internally so that it informs my actions and thinking,

Technology, Collaboration and Constructivist Principles

As in anything there is the myth and the reality. Hollywood, textbooks and other sociological elements have created many myths. The myth of the Wild West, the pioneers, the settlers, all involve a lone wolf fighting against nature to survive and are tainted or imbued with romantic and heroic imagery. The reality of each is quite different. The settlers may not have survived without the aid of local knowledge. I think Rheingold is dealing more with the myth versus the reality of how we work cooperatively. Humans are definitely social animals as are most primates. The ability to cooperate and work as a group has allowed us to adapt to every ecosystem on the planet.
Technology is certainly changing how and whom people cooperate with. It can allow instantaneous collaboration across the globe. We just purchased an interactive whiteboard in our school. The company’s website has thousands of lesson plans made and uploaded by teachers from around the world. As well students can interact, cooperate, and build knowledge bases with students around the world via wikis and blogs. This learning can happen in more organic social structures, or structures the learners create rather than the forced social structures of schools and classrooms.

Dueling Theories

It is interesting that several of us expressed the notion that human learning is too complex to be explained by any one theory and each has something to contribute to our understanding of this complex phenomenon, and that Kerr closed his post with the same sentiment. “It seems to me that each _ism is offering something useful without any of them being complete or stand alone in their own right”

Our students present a variety of learning styles and modalities. It is our task to create a rich learning environment. Creating that environment involves many factors, classroom management, routines, and educational experiences all within the social setting of a school community. This is a complex task, necessitating openness to the best offerings of each theory. This is at the heart of Kapp’s closing statement; “The issue many forget is that “learning” is not one thing…it is a multi-layered word that tends to get treated as if it were just one thing…and it’s not.”

I am not certain that theorist were attempting to draw a direct analogy between the human mind and the the way computers process information. Perhaps the analogy they sought was that information passes through the brain, something happens to it, or doesn’t happen as the case may be, in that process allowing that information to be stored and retrieved at a later date. This is an interesting thing we do, hanging on to something we think may be the intent of a theorist, or anyone for that matter, but in the end is probably irrelevant to the underlining tenets of the theory.

http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2007/01/isms-as-filter-not-blinker.html

http://karlkapp.blogspot.com/2007/01/out-and-about-discussion-on-educational.html

Siemen's Metaphor Refelection

I believe a teacher in the digital classroom must be able to act in all of these metaphors and perhaps others not described as well. Each is appropriate either at different times in a curricular unit of for different stages of learning or abilities of a variety of learners. Please take into account I am speaking from my experiences teaching grades 4-8. Some of the views I take may be very different from secondary or higher education teachers.

Reading Fisher’s original work I think network administrator (perhaps it comes from a technical bias) does not adequately fit the role he describes. There is a much greater depth in his description of how a teacher guides a student to becoming a discriminating reader of blogs, and other online information sources than the metaphor “network administrator” might bring to mind.

Bonk, when drawing the concierge metaphor in his blog, was speaking about online teachers, not classroom teachers. He does draw the metaphor to classroom teachers but not in any detailed fashion. He does suggest that the graduate programs at Indiana University, where he is a professor, have too many stipulations – which courses to take, etc. He propounds that there should be no or as few as possible requirements. I certainly don’t want to be operated on by a physician so trained, defended by a lawyer so trained, etc. He goes onto say “Life, and hence learning” is a journey, not a set of checkboxes, prescriptions, and requirements.” Certainly life is a journey and learning certainly can be a life long journey. But training for a profession whether truck driver, plumber, doctor, teacher, nurse, etc. does have set knowledge and skill requirements. I thing the metaphor, while appropriate for certain situations, lacks any real depth, as does Dr. Bonk’s notion that education not have set learning goals or requirements.

I don’t really connect with the master artist/curator metaphor perhaps because I’ve never met either, but I have been to a number of museums. I have seen, as I am sure many others in the world have, the work they created, procured and/or maintained but have never seen them in museums speaking about their collection. Everyone has had and met teachers. Everyone has at some point in their life spoken with teachers.

I think the metaphor of a “maestro” conductor might work for me (Can you sense my ego growing!). This is person may be skilled on several instruments. The maestro knows the piece of music the symphony will be performing intimately. Her or his skill is getting each musician, taking into account individual strengths and weaknesses as well as what their instrument can contribute, to perform that piece to the best of their collective and individual best. Within the set structure of the score the maestro will also provide room for individual creativity to make this particular performance of the piece unique from all others. This metaphor I think gives a better picture of the many roles a teacher plays in a classroom, digital or otherwise.

Even though I took the time to draw a metaphor, in my heart there is no need. Each limits the way one thinks of the role, teacher. And how many metaphors do we need? Perhaps we could just accept that being a teacher is an ever evolving, and incredibly complex and challenging role to play.

Bonk, C. (2007). USA today leads to tomorrowTeachers as online concierges and can facebook pioneer save face? Retrieved on June 9, 2009, from http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/

Fisher, C. (n.d.) Teacher as network administrator. Retrieved June 9, 2009, from http://remoteaccess.typepad.com.com/remote_access/files/teacher_as_network_admin.pdf