Chapter Synopsis

-Michael G. Moore & Greg Kearsley

Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Distance Education

8WWZ9RN2CDKH This chapter focuses on defining distance education, discussing “systems approach”, and fundamental changes that distance education can bring to the educational field.  Applying the “systems approach” philosophy to distance education allows one to realize that all parts of the educational process are inter-related and independent at the same time.  Meaning that if one aspect of communication is altered in the instructional design the over all learning experience could be altered.  The “systems approach” of distance education also broadens the impact of it on traditional education.  Lack of need for classroom space, parking, buildings, etc. or a need for computers, Internet capabilities, etc.

Chapter 2: The Historical Context of Distance Education

This chapter covers the history of distance education from the late nineteenth century.  According to Moore and Kearsley there are four main stages:

1. Correspondence/Independent Study (1890-present)
2. Open Universities: (1969- present)
3. Broadcasting & Teleconferencing (1960s-present)
4. Multimedia & the Web (1980s – present)

This chapter does seem to me as interesting that it only focuses on 1890 to present.  I would think that from the start of the written word distributed and distance education would have started.  Socrates feared the written word would adversely affect society.  I believe that would be a starting point for the history of distributed/distance learning?

I cannot image taking a course via radio!  I am impatient as it is with the “instant” nature of the Internet when using asynchronous communication (i.e. forum, blog, wiki, etc.). It seems that as technology has changed more people are taking advantage of distance and distributed learning.  I do not think that this is a good thing.  I personally believe that we need to interact with others individually to gain maximum benefit in learning. Text does not convey emotion well, neither does voice only.  Seeing another persons facial expressions, eye movements, and inflection bring the entire focus of their statements to light.

Chapter 3: The Scope of Distance Education

This chapter discuss the various nature of distance education including: correspondence schools, open universities, schools, colleges and universities, teleconference consortia, corporations, and even the department of defense. This chapter also presents a table of various distance applications, these tables are dated and do not necessarily help today.  Also the table does not differentiate between individual or group focused learning.

Chapter 4: Research on Effectiveness

Chapter 4 is a summary of research in distance learning with a focus on effectiveness of the technology. The summaries were then broken into four conclusions “(1) there is insufficient evidence to support the idea that classroom instruction is the optimum delivery method; (2) instruction at a distance can be as effective in bringing about learning as classroom instruction; (3) the absence of face-to-face contact is not in itself detrimental to the learning process; and (4) what makes any course good or poor is a consequence of how well it is designed, delivered, and conducted, not whether the students are face-to-face or at a distance.”  I find that the forth conclusion is the strongest point to be made. The course design is more important than any expansive technology that can be purchased.  Leading us to the idea that the content is more important than the technology.  According to Chapter 4 effective distance learning and teaching occurs with large numbers of students and good instructional design.

Chapter 5: Technologies and Media

Technology can take many different forms media, print, audio, video, radio, television, computer-based instruction, and teleconferencing.  Chapter 5 defines each of these technologies and gives educational examples of their uses.  Each medium is also looked at in terms of strengths and weaknesses.  The chapter ends with discussion points on designer’s selection of the technologies in planning courses.  This chapter is now highly outdated, and the strengths and weakness of these technologies have changed.  Print is no longer passive, audio/video is no longer expensive or as time consuming, teleconferencing is easy and cheap, and computers are no longer expensive.

Chapter 6: Course Design and Development

Chapter 6 delves into design and development of distance educational courses.  The author looks at Instructional Systems Design (ISD), Development Team, Designing the Study Guide, Preparing and Audio Conference, Planning a Satellite Teleconference, Computer Conferencing, Creating Student Involvement, Evaluation, and some General Design Principles.  I found the ISD and Development Team sections to be very interesting. It seems that the team approach to developing a course is more effective because everyone brings a set of skills to the table, but it appears to me that a single teacher following the author-editor model designs most courses. I found the study guide section to be insightful into the way our online courses are set up, smaller units that are easier to manage and the layout of the LMS’ that are used.  Finally the general design principles are a nice synopsis of items to consider when designing a course.

Chapter 7: Teaching and Tutoring

This chapter looks into the teacher perspective in an online educational setting.  Chapter 7 deduces that teachers must master the “delivery technology” that is involved for the course to be effective.  Another aspect of the teacher paradigm in online learning is the humanizing or personalizing of the class.  Teachers of online classes need to also make sure to not present the class but promote interactivity.  Finally teachers need to be trained to use these systems effectively.
Chapter 8: The Distance Education Student
Chapter 8 focuses on the relationship of student to the distance learning setting.  At the time this book was published the majority of students were adults.  I wonder if this is still true today?  This chapter also looks as the factors that determine student success in the distance learning setting.  I also wonder if these factors are true for adolescents as well as adults?  Chapter 8 encourages student feedback to determine success of a distance learning course, as well as a support system for them.  This book finds that adult learners, once they get over initial reactions, enjoy an online distance course.  Finally I wonder what learning styles do better at distance courses versus others?

Chapter 9: Administration, Management and Policy

This chapter focuses on the administrative issues that may arise in distance education with regards to policy and state regulations.  The major fuci of Chapter 9 are Planning, Staffing, Budgeting, Scheduling, Quality Assessment, and Policy.  Policy seems to take the majority of focus from an Administrator standpoint in distance learning.  I find it interesting that policy ends the chapter when in fact policy is what sets the decisions for Planning, Staffing, Budgeting, and Scheduling.  Chapter 5 touched briefly on policy with a few questions on the development of policy.  This section focuses on challenges, state regulation, and various barriers to overall adoption of distance learning.  While reading the case study of Florida I wondered what it looks like today. Here you go: http://www.distancelearn.org/mainPage.cf…

Chapter 10: The Theoretical Basis for Distance Education

This is by far the most helpful chapter for me!  Understanding a small part of the theoretical basis for DL opened my mind up to what is going on.  From Peters “industrial methods” in DL to Boyd and Apps effects of physical and transactional distance, this chapter brings it all together!  After finishing this chapter I went to Google in search of more and found this: http://tip.psychology.org/theories.html .  I really feel that the fact that Moore and Kearsly are taking a “systems view” on distance education is a DL theory in and of itself!
GREAT STUFF!

Chapter 11: International Perspectives

Chapter 11 looks at the various perspectives of countries other than USA toward online education.  China, Norway, Australia, and the Republic of South Africa are examined briefly for history and system analysis.  This chapter also offers a short case study of an Australian distance learning system, using Telematics (phone lines for voice and computer).  I found that overall analysis would have been helpful in a chart format.  Not all aspects of each country were equally examined (i.e. self-regulation, demographics, finance, etc.).  The bits of information were highly interesting and I found them to build a picture that I wanted more info on.  I am sure that the data that is presented is very outdated.  The use of distance education in developing countries is fantastic.  Bringing education to persons that would likewise have no chance at education is amazing!  I wonder if distance education has filled the gap or created a larger gap between developed and undeveloped countries?  I also am now a subscriber to ICDE reports via UNT library services. http://www.icde.org/

Chapter 12: The Transformation of Education

This chapter covers many aspects of distance education that would affect its effectiveness for all stakeholders.  The authors look at the acceptance of this type of education by many educational institutions and organizations. They also discuss how distance education might affect the structure of universities.  New technologies are also examined to see how they might influence distance education.  The authors also explore how distance education might impact teacher training. Finally Chapter 12 looks at how educational institutions might begin to compete or work together with the influx of distance education.  I truly appreciate the authors discussing the importance of life long learning being a leading influence to distance education.

As an addendum to your blog this week, I would like you to think about the following based on your two sessions in Second Life this week and last:

Physical
At the end of the session, how did you feel physically?

My vision is skewed at first, tired, and yet over stimulated.

How long did it take for you to fall asleep after?

one hour longer than normal

How did you feel the next morning?

Fine.

Mental/cognitive/affective
At the end of the session, how did you feel mentally?

Over stimulated and a bit dazed.

How did working in SL make you feel affectively while you were in there? Engaged? Bored? Tired? Frustrated? When you completed the evening, how did you feel about it? Did you reflect or just stay with whatever emotion you left with?

I felt bored and frustrated with the other users issues (internet drop, confusion, etc.)

Cognitively, how much load was on you at any given time? Where did this load come from? Audio, video, text, activities, processing your physical virtual place in the space, navigating, other?

I felt over loaded with text as well as the spoken word happening at the same time.

Transfer. How much of what you learned do you think would transfer to the real world? Why?

I feel that I would be able to relate to surroundings better in the real world because it is real!

Instruction from the student perspective

Time. As a student, you all spent about 4 hours over two weeks working in SL. Was the time invested worth it in terms of what you learned content-wise? Was it worth it in terms of what you learned about SL from the perspective of its limitations and affordances, instructor and student issues, and general challenges of DL (which are usually the same regardless of whether it is 3-D or not?)

My most exciting moment in SL was discovering the “true” uses of SL and issues that might arise in an educational setting.  Naked people, bad language, addiction to game/social aspects, and unfocused use are just a few concerns I have with the program.  I feel that the time was well spent to discover how users work on SL.

Communication tools. I also felt that, as students, one or more people wanted me to use a couple SL communication tools (i.e. VoiP) that I was avoiding based on my own contextual restrictions as well as my own instructional need to have the class focus on the one best supported by SL (text) for this period. However, there was a level of frustration, that I’m not sure if it came from a personal student preference (perhaps based on Gardner’s learning style or just an efficiency of communication perspective.) In a DL space that takes hours to plan, is it possible to meet every student preference or personal requirement? Should we be?

The only issue I see with trying to meet every students learning styles is that it can cognitively overload the entire class with information from text, voice, and video.

What other challenges did you face when trying to learn in the space that may have interfered with understanding or your ability to complete tasks in the SL space?

I was very distracted by the gaming aspect of SL.  The 3D world made me want to jet around and play, I have a hard time stoping to watch a video or read a sign.

As an instructor yourself, how would you overcome this? Several mentioned last night that they pretty much would only use SL if they had a gun to their head. Are there appropriate times and places for using SL as a tool rather than as a course delivery mechanism?

I would use it as a tool to provide students an opportunity to experience parts of the world that they would other wise not have the opportunity to experience.  SL would be a good tool to build background knowledge to deepen the learning taking place FTF.

Visual/spatial tools. As an instructor, I saw some interesting visual/spatial tools in the spaces (the physics simulation aspects of the Star Trek sim) as well as some that were completely wasted (the constant use of text-based note cards in both places; the Toxtown being basically non-interactive, lacking in narrative).

Is there a way to design these places to truly be immersive and communicate what we want to communicate or is it just too time consuming? From a design perspective, if these spaces were highly interactive and reusable, would the time/cost investment be worth it in terms of learning?

Yes!  I am not fully aware of the limitations of SL but would imagine if there was a way for the user to actually do the cleaning up of Toxtown or see it as a mirror image clean and dirty the experience would be far more emmersive.  Same thing with the Star Trek island, the avatars for permanat characters were very lame note cards everywhere lame.  Although I do understand that in SL what I see on my comp is not truly what everyone else sees, based off of resolution, processcor, connection, and graphics capatbilities.

Lesson planning. I also looked for good online lesson plans for SL that I could just use with you to give examples, but found very few if any. Most were not really lesson plans with objectives, just lists of activities and some general outcome idea with no assessment or learning evaluation component. Why do you think that is?

Because it is hard to evaluate the experience in second life, it is artificial.

Sustainability of SL
I posted a link to an article about the perceived sustainability of SL as a tool in the Moodle. Given that SL has existed since 2003 and is a fairly mature technology, do you think it is sustainable for education? If so, how? If not, why not?

SL will sustain because of the social aspect.  I meet a few people when surfing last week that spend 24 hours on line at a time!  That is addiction.  I also posted another blog about the article here.

Slurls:

1. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bobcat%20Village/128/128/20
2. http://slurl.com/secondlife/NASA%20eEducation/128/128/28

1. Bobcat Village, in Second Life (SL), is a campus tour of Texas State University. Other universities offer this virtual experience, but I found this one particularly nice. The island is very well built (from my experience) and you can set up “tours” of the campus. They also provide a YouTube tutorial to help perspective students.

On this island I experienced three of the four parts of LTCA Theory: Strategic, Normative, and Dramaturgical. Constantive communication might have occurred for me if I would have scheduled an appointment for a tour. Strategic communication occurred for me every time I read a sign or followed directions that SL/island gave me. The environment of SL provides the user with the normative communication so that he/she understands what is acceptable and possible in on the island. Of course second life would not be successful if it was not for the Dramaturgical aspect of the communication experience.

The 3D experience allows users to explore what Texas State University has to offer without the obligation to commit to anything else. I enjoyed the well thought design and how the different environments complimented each other.

2. NASA eEducation is one of the most exciting revelations for me in SL. After our last class experience in SL I found the program to be pointless for education. NASA changed that for me. Exploring the island was like stepping into a museum of vehicles, pictures, and text. I enjoyed exploring the different exhibits and reading about the history of various projects. This experienced allowed my “new” eyes to explore SL in a new way. I began looking for islands that provided students with experiences that would not normally have been afforded them (titanic, solar system, Eco-systems, etc.). Opening up students world to a larger perspective is the greatest aspect of SL in the classroom (that is right, classroom).

I experienced LTCA Theory in full at the NASA eEducation island. While I was there I spoke with other individuals that shared their ideas of second life. Most were there for recreation and spent and average of 20 hours a day on SL (their words). Which brings on the concerns of the artifical environment and escaping reality.

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SL Class experience:

As a distance learning tool I thought Second Life (SL) sucked! Sorry to be so straight forward but I have no other way to express it . As I explored SL this last week I found that it would be very cool to use SL in the classroom with students or even for students. Using SL can allow students to see and experience other places, times, events in a more immersive way than a text book or picture. The world is interactive (good and bad) which allows for students to live it rather than imagine living it. Again issues for me are the adult content that is not blocked, the way the user feels as if they are playing a game (addication), and technical difficulties.

Tapped in

Activity One
Favorite parts of Tapped In:

1. So easy to set up!
2. Transcripts of all chats
3. for K-12 classroom seems very sheltered and “clean”

Activity Two
Compared to other websites Tapped In (TI) is very bleak as far as eye appeal.  The website does not take full advantage of web 2.0.  With this being said, it is the easy website I have every worked with to set up a class.  Teachers, especially veteran teachers, would be attracted to this website.  Students on the other hand would find it out dated and bulky.  By bulky I mean not sleek and smooth like a flash based website or website that takes advantage of web 2.0 features (i.e. inline color chaning, or object interaction).  The other disadvantage to TI is that there is not really a way to integrate media heavy content only links.  I find that this is a great disadvantage to other sites that students frequent.

Activity Three
I would use TI as a way to promote 24 hour learning or even for tutorials.  I shared this with a fellow teacher this past week as a great tutorial tool.  Students must have a computer and internet access, but both technologies can be outdated and still work with the website.  The only planning teachers must do to use TI as a tutor is to set up student accounts before tutoring sessions.  The teacher I spoke with was excited and wanted to see more.

I was pleased to hear my professors reservations about distance education!  I am a strong proponent of public education and believe that students should not go to private school or take school purely online.  I also have believed that distance education was strictly that, for distance education.  When I heard a fellow teacher comment that she was taking her online class to be a principal from a local university I was confused.  She discussed the ease of the class and compared to my experience at TWU her classes were a joke!  I was so frustrated that she could be a public school administrator one day:(

This past class we discussed distance and distributed education.  My biggest revelation (as silly as it sounds) was the true difference between the two.  Distance education is actually guided by a teacher/instructor while distributed education is just materials.  My new thought is if computers are automating education classes or guiding learners then the educational process has become distributed and is not longer distance education.  This means that within our own schools students are receiving distributed education via computers on a daily basis when using tutoring programs that “move at their pace”.