MODULE 2

Week 4 “New technologies offer new opportunities for educators to increase learner engagement and improve the overall value of the learning experience." (Source: George Siemens)

George Siemens discussed the growing acceptance of distance education in today’s corporate and educational spheres, including three possible elements of distance education that are creating more effective learning experiences and giving distance education an identity of its own distinct from F2F courses: (a) global diversity, (b) communication, and (c) collaborative interaction.

Do you agree or disagree with his view?
I do agree with Siemens, and I am strongly interested in the element of Collaborative Interaction/Communication. I feel that these two elements are intertwined and necessary to get the most out of distance learning today.
How has this element evolved?
(Laureate, Inc., 2008). George Siemens (2008) stated, “"we're recognizing that the notion of distance, or geographical separation, isn't as significant a factor as we might have thought it was even five years ago.” The potential of distance education is growing rapidly. People are starting to realize that f2f communication isn’t the only way to communicate. Siemens points out that the “Triple Helix model” Bridge the gap of comfort so that learners are comfortable they will quickly find distance learning collaboration the way to communicate. Siemens (2008) states, “that as technology grows in quality we will see increased use of distance collaboration.”

What online tools are available today to facilitate these interactions among learners?

In order to ensure success in any distance education class one must create a deep and meaningful (collaborative-constructivist) learning experience by using these three interdependent elements social, cognitive and teaching presence.

There is so many ways to collaborate and communicate line I will name a few that I know. Cell phones, text chat, Wiki, bookmarking, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, email, instant messaging, web conferencing, YouTube, and numerous other communication conveniences.

George Siemens made a comment about the “Triple Helix Model” with government, education, and business coming together for the good of all. What an innovation if we could put the differences aside for the good of mankind.

I found some interesting concept maps;
*community of inquiry
http://communitiesofinquiry.com/files/coi_model.pdf
* practical inquiry
http://communitiesofinquiry.com/files/practicalinquiry.pdf

POSTING TO THE FOLLOWING BLOGS:

Katherine Crawford
http://kat-edutech.blogspot.com/

Bill Goldstein
http://billgoldstein.blogspot.com/



Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). The future of distance education featuring Dr. Michael Simonson. United States: Walden University. Podcast retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4199707&Survey=1&47=4862829&ClientNodeID=984645&coursenav=1&bhcp=1