Submitted by Leslie Williams, 6-5-07:
Broadband is expanding and growing: currently there are requests from educators and business groups for congress to pass legislation to increase high-speed internet access across the country. http://chronicle.com/infotech
The use of podcasts is growing also. Podcasts are audio recordings of a variety of messages, and podcasts are now being used for educational purposes. Students are able to listen to lectures with podcast recordings. Apple Computer has collaborated with universities to create and make available these audio recordings through iTunes. Daniel Colman is a professor at Stanford who has created an open culture blog that tracks academic podcasts. A few universities, including Stanford, have set up a collection of lectures and entire classes through a storefront in iTunes. There is some concern that students will miss class time as they choose to purchase the podcast broadcast of the lecture instead. On one hand, this phenomenon can help relieve over-crowding in the university classes, but on the other hand, the hallowed lecture halls may slowly empty out. However, the cost of taping and providing lectures on podcasts may eventually bring this trend to a hault. http://chronicle.com/media/audio/v53/i40/colman
Professors are now looking to create virtual reality worlds for enhanced, 3-D learning environments. They are examining the virtual world, Second Life, for educational opportunities and ideas. Boston College is supporting this learning platform called, "Immersive Education." Some of the technology that is currently available for K-12 classes, higher education, and business/corporate training are: simulation technology, interactive 3-D graphics, voice chat and voice over internet chat, commercial gaming, webcams, and enhanced digital media. http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2119
K-12 education in the U.S. is changing constantly. There has been tremendous growth in online courses and enrollments over the past 2-3 years. One of the significant reasons for this is that parents and students realize the increased opportunities for courses that are often unavailable in their brick and mortar schools, and they like the flexibility and convenience that the online environment provides. California has many large online programs across the state; Detroit has Michigan Virtual School; Chicago has Illinois Virtual School; there is a Louisiana Virtual School, and Ohio has a variety of virtual schools, with their largest charter e-school being The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT). Florida is home to Florida Virtual School. FLVS had over 31,000 students in over 68,000 1/2-credit courses in the 2005-06 school year. According to their quarterly report in April, 2007, the FLVS grew to servicing over 53,000 students enrolled in over 90,000 1/2-credit courses, with a population of 59% female and 41% male students. http://www.nacol.org/docs/national_report.pdf
Comments:
DistEd (June 5, 2007. 08:02pm)
W3 - Compare and Contrast
Submitted by Leslie Williams
6-5-07:
I believe there is certainly a correlation between this current era of distance education and the current progress of technology. The main reason distance education classes are so sought after and so attractive is because of the ease and convenience of the asynchronous environment, and that progressive, asynchronous atmosphere is possible due to the advancements in technology.
For instance, distance education is growing for high school in part due to the fact that online schools can provide high-level Advanced Placement courses for the students. Many students live in rural areas where AP courses are not provided. Now that media technology has advanced to this high level, curriculum specialists along with technology specialists have been able to create simulated labratory components in AP science classes, where the student can participate in portions of the lab work. So, the growth in distance education is in large part due to the exciting and high-quality presentation of course materials and information. I feel that distance education's success is dependent on the progress of technology, as our students in this day and age are tech-savvy and they will continue to be attracted to a wide variety of technological advances. Many students are so proficient on the computer, they find it very easy to successfully maneuver through the course material and they can master the subject matter. Basically, technology makes distance learning exciting and extremely attractive!