Global Diversity in Distance Education
How has global diversity evolved in distance education?
Seimens (2010) discussed the growing acceptance of distance education. One factor that has evolved from the use of distance education is the ability to communicate and collaborate with diverse people around the globe (Seimens, 2010). Students worldwide are accessing education from the comfort of their own home. I found this is true for the educators as well. I have been a distance education student since 2005; first receiving my Masters in Nursing Education through Walden University and now my PhD in Education also through Walden. I remember the first time I had an Instructor from Saudi Arabia and thought, wow, how amazing that we are able to connect from such wide distances as if we were together in the same room!
What online tools are available today to facilitate these interactions among learners?
Besides the typical computers that enable us to access the Internet and submit assignments, many other tools are available for people to connect globally. Skype is a popular, free service for people to converse live. It can be used as simply a phone through a computer or face-to-face interaction is available for users that have built in cameras. This has allowed me to collaborate on projects with other students while talking in real time. Other tools include products such as Elluminate that allows the use of whiteboard, screen sharing, and document sharing where all users can interact and work together on a project. Blogging has become a way for people to connect along with Wiki’s, Web 2.0, Google Doc sharing…the lists seem endless.
I found 2 blog sites on the topic of global diversity in education. EDUTech Special (2010) commented on the ability for users to communicate from anywhere and how this has expanded diversity through distances far and wide. Jeff’s Walden Blog (2010) stated the use of videoconferencing in distance education and taking virtual fieldtrips, thus allowing students to visit other cultures online.
Laureate Education. (Producer). (2010). The Future of Distance Education. (DVD). Available from Waldenu.edu
EDUCTech Special. (2010). Blog post. Retrieved from http://chadwickeds.blogspot.com/2010/10/module-2-blog.html
Jeff’s Walden Blog. (2010). How distance education has changed global diversity. Retrieved from http://jeffwaldenblog.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/how-distance-education-has-changed-global-diversity/
I have been a long-time member of learncentral, but have not been active in my membership. I have to admit that I was not sure what Elluminate was when you mentioned it, so I perused their web site and found that they were associated. I was even able to go in and join a session today to check it out.
ReplyDeleteI found that they were very much like WebEx. The interactive white board and the teleconferencing over the internet. I had used that as a corporate trainer before. I like how it was used for synchronous communication and learning, but it is not such a great tool for asynchronous learning. Thanks for sharing the information about elluminate.
There are some great new and improved tools that are used to communicate and interact online in a collaborative learning community. There are some new technologies that I have not become familiar with at this point but will be such as skype. This was my first time working with a blog but it is a great way to communicate within a distance education program.
ReplyDeleteMarion
Diane: When discussing the impact of global diversity on distance education, you should first define global diversity. Your posting demonstrated how technology has allowed students from around the world to collaborate, but global diversity is about the differences. According to Garden & Swartz (2003) global diversity has no common definition. They state "For some it denotes race and gender, for others it means accepting all things 'that make us different,' and for others it means ethnicity and culture".
ReplyDeleteIf this is the case then we need to examine how distance education can cater to a widely diverse student population from different diverse cultures, ethnicities, genders, etc.
Thus we need to explore how to make our distance education approach more universal. This may require use to think in a non-Western way about distance education. We must think about how technology can help use address the differences.
References
Garden & Swartz. (2003). Chapter 2 - What is global diversity. Retreived from: http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/34/07879677/0787967734.pdf
Dianne,
ReplyDeleteI may have gotten my classes mixed up before but in my research, I ran across several articles on iPads in the Nursing field. Personally, I think more schools with adopt the iPad or some other means of technology to replace texts in the near future. As for the price of iPads, etc., it will probably decrease significantly in the near future.
Apple iPad will change the nursing textbook business
http://nursingeducator.blogspot.com/2010/01/apple-ipad-will-change-nursing-textbook.html
CDI College Brings iPads into the Practical Nursing Classroom
http://www.americanconsumernews.com/2010/11/cdi-college-brings-ipads-into-the-practical-nursing-classroom.html