Distance Learning

As an educator for 5 years in the area of Mathematics, I have always been baffled when attending workshops, staff developments, and faculty meetings that encourage us to incorporate technology into our lessons. I come from the “old school” where the teacher sat at the overhead, taught you how to do a lesson, and there was no dog and pony show. However, in this modern day of videogames, I-pods, cell phones, and various other computer gizmos, it is becoming painfully obvious that teachers are going to have to refine their methods of teaching if they want to reach students and make them successful in classrooms. The burning question on everyone’s mind is how. Of course you have your classrooms that are equipped with laptops, and overhead projectors so that the teacher can display images from a computer screen up for the entire class to see, but in this day and time that is actually pretty run of the mill. Still other classrooms have Promethean Boards which are something that students enjoy which allows for interactive learning in classrooms. However, it can get far more in depth than even that. The topic that I chose to research with the Google search engine was distance learning and using technology to facilitate K-12 instruction. During my research, I was surprised to find that there is a whole institute that exists called The American Journal for Distance Education (AJDE). The primary goal of this organization is to provide information about research and scholarships in America. It is an actual program that is available for purchase by teachers on all levels from elementary to college. Obviously, distance education is an ever growing phenomenon if programs such as this one exist and thrive. What I primarily found during my search were advertisements for the many distance education schools that exist. I was positively appalled at the number! All this time I have lived in my little public school box thinking that the main schools in the world were public schools, private schools, and universities. I am amazed at the number of people who buy into distance education! However, I seem to contradict myself as I relay my surprise at the distance education phenomenon. I myself am a product of distance education since I am enrolled in this online course. I never really thought of myself as a distance education student. I simply considered myself to be a UHCL student. However, I am taking full advantage of distance education through the convenience of an online course. Distance education has very rich roots, and has been around for quite sometime. However, it has just recently become sophisticated and one of the most well known and widely attended distance education programs is the University of Phoenix. All of their courses are offered online, and cater to the “working adult” population that consists of people trying to get degrees who may not necessarily have the time to sit down in an actual classroom because of demanding jobs. Looking forward, I can only imagine that distance education will continue to expand and grow to levels that we never dreamed imaginable. It is just a matter of time before people scoff and the idea of an online course because it has been replaced by something much more time efficient. I am excited to see what the future holds in this area.