The Definition of Distance Education Evolves

Distance Learning was for Geeks

I remember watching the lunar landing live as a little girl and then later that evening I watched THE WALTONS on TV where the oldest child in the TV family, John-boy, got part of his education via correspondence classes.  I remember thinking “how old fashioned compared to going to the moon!”  Fast forward to college, and I was proud to be one of a small few who took a course in BASIC programming.  The entire semester culminated in a project of programming scripts hundreds of lines long, which made a smiling, winking face on the computer screen.  Still, distance education always seemed like a useless pursuit to me because it did not seem to offer what I was looking for.  I always wanted to be ahead of the technology learning curve and was fascinated by innovation, but I just never wanted to program inside an operating system….ugh!  In 1990, I finally ruled it out when I attended my first class in a Masters Degree program for computer science.  Twenty minutes of syllabus review and mind blowing confusion and I walked out for good without regret, deciding that the “world wide web” and programming was only for geeks who enjoyed communicating in secret codes. 

Distance Education Still Misunderstood

Now I operate daily with four different email addresses, a work computer and a home laptop.  I can get information from anywhere, anytime and I spend countless hours per month learning off the internet.  I used to think that was the sum total of distance education, like a self-study, unless I was willing to commit to a computer science degree.  Indeed, I never even heard of alternative degrees in Technology outside of learning operating systems hardware and programming.  So distance education never seemed very compelling since I really wanted to advance my technology skills, but just not in html, COBOL, C+ or any of the hundreds of others.  Plus, raising my children kept me busy enough and the high school job didn’t really require the skills so much.   The idea of actually obtaining a Masters degree in Instructional Technology only hit my radar about three years ago, so I researched it.  I was thrilled and validated to discover Walden’s program, so I signed up!  Learning from a formal “institution” via distance education has transformed my opinion of distance learning and my definition of geeks. 

Currently Improved Definition of Distance Education

This particular course has augmented my understanding even further.  I have learned that new standards have been developed (SCORM) to better define technology access and quality in learning tools, including data, voice and video (Distance Education: The Next Generation, 2012).  I was reassured that much scholarly work has been done globally to formalize a uniform definition of distance education and that foreign governments have weighed in as well.  I have learned that the definition of distance education is a changing permutation of many different approaches including the open learning approach and the virtual school approach (Simonson et al, 2012).

Dictionary.com defines the word “institution” as a noun: “an organization, establishment, foundation, society, or the like, devoted to the promotion of a particular cause or program, especially one of a public, educational, or charitable character.”  The building devoted to such work is incidental.  This became extraordinarily important for me when my honors student, 16 year old daughter dropped out of high school after her sophomore year to basically “self-school”.  Together we designed a rigorous line-up of home study, community college, open courseware (Yale and MIT) and college level achievement tests  to meet her state requirements and earn her 18 college credits besides.  I am proud to report that she did a good deal of her learning through distance education and she finished high school in three years and entered college with sophomore, second year status.  Distance education is powerful and freeing and improving every day.

Future of Distance Education

So it seems that a combination of my progressing technical knowledge, my profession and my life stage contributed to my changing definition of distance education.  Universally, factors such as profit making, governmental support and pressures, students’ collective sense of autonomy, the demands of the global population, advancing technologies and the morphing teacher-student bond will continually reshape the definition of distance education (Tracey & Richey, 2005).  I believe that “web-based instruction has the potential for never-before-seen levels of personal customization” (Huett, Moller, Foshay & Coleman, 2008, p. 75) and we, as instructional designers, are on the forefront of this groundbreaking trend.  The struggle for us lies in the following statement:  “we have neither the unlimited time nor unlimited resources to prove our worth to the current leaders aggressively advocating the use of technology in training and education” (Moller, Foshay, & Huett, 2008, p. 66). Yet, why not go for the moon?

Click Here to see my Visual Definition of Distance Education

TIMELINE FACTS

1883-1892  Newspaper correspondence courses and the first “open source” courses offered through The Society to Encourage Studies at Home (for economically disadvantaged women-now dissolved)

1898 Telegraph and Hermods (Swedish company still around)

1906-1933 Several institutions, colleges and universities establish correspondence classes

At nineteen years old, my Irish grandfather arrived in America in 1908 with a sixth grade education and landed a mill factory job. He worked that mill job his whole life and went on to have eight children, including my mom, the fourth.

1963-1965 Several correspondence classes offered via TV, Phone and Radio

I was born in 1962, number seven of twelve kids!

1969 The Internet’s Grandfather was born at NASA  called ARPANET

My grandfather was 70 and still only had a sixth grade education.

I was 7 and watched John-Boy Walton take correspondence classes on TV.

1970 Walden University was established

I was 8 years old and climbed trees every chance I got.

1975 to early 80s Video Tape Classes and the internet grows

I tried not to fall asleep during video programs in high school.

In college, I made a winking, smiley face for my final project in BASIC programming class.

The 90s New Virtual Schools and Blended Learning

I got my first computer in 1989 for its powerful word processing capabilities…wow!

It was a Leading Edge Model D, cost $600.00 and I needed to know MS DOS commands to work it.

In 1990, I attended my first class in a Master Degree program for Computer Science. 

Twenty minutes of syllabus review and mind blowing confusion and I walked out for good,

deciding that the “world wide web” and programming was only for geeks.

I sold large corporations GEM Service, the first aggregate email service offered by the CT phone company.  I sold voice mail systems and I became a trainer for Microsoft products. I saw the power of technology first hand.  I started my own ADDIE consulting firm.

The Turn of the Millennium LMS developed, Web 1.0, Learning Portals and SCORM established

2007-2009 Web 2.0 and Blackboard, wider distribution of the PC in laptop form

I have owned about 20 different computers and laptops in my life and can’t imagine living without one.

In 2011, I started my Walden Master Degree in Instructional Technology and am now on my 7^th class.

References

Distance Education: The Next Generation. (2012). [Video Transcript]. [With Dr. Simonson]. Baltimore, MD:  Laureate Education, Inc. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=6493363&Survey=1&47=8988324&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Coleman, C. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 3: K12). TechTrends, 52(5), 63–67.

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). 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.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.). (chapt. 2, pp. 32–4). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Tracey, M., & Richey, R. (2005). The evolution of distance education. Distance Learning, 2(6), 17–21.