April 1 Presentation Outline

I. Brief Review

1) Evolution of definition of DE

(Barker, Frisbie & Patrick)

Correspondence study-based DE:

The learner is physically separated from the teacher;
The learner is separated in time from the teacher;
The learner learns independent of contact with the teacher or with other students.

Rudolf Manfred Delling (1966)

Charles A. Wedemeyer (1973)

Telecommunications-based DE:

The use of new technology permits live interaction and immediate feedback. The teaching-learning experience for both instructor and students occurs simultaneously. It also provides a potential for student-to-student interaction. It is oriented more toward small group or clusters of students at different locations networked together for real-time interactivity than to individual students. Exchanges among students increases the likelihood of socialization between students, peer tutoring and small group study.

2) Evolution of theory in DE

(theoretical principles of DE - six perspectives)

theory

Six perspectives - common feature of DE: separation between teachers and teachers

Otte Peters (1967, 1989)

A comparison between distance education and the industrial process
Central concept: DE is the product of the industrial society.
Common characteristics: division of labor, mechanization, mass production, standardization and centralization
Primary focus: DE must now change to match the changes of societal vales in a postindustrial society.

Moore (1991)

A theory of transactional distance and learner autonomy
Central concept: transactional distance is more than physical separation. It leads to a psychological and communications gap, a potential misunderstanding between instructor and learners.
The greater the transactional distance, the more autonomy the learner has to exercise.
Primary focus: perceived needs and desires of the adult learners

Holmberg (1983, 1985)

A theory of teaching in DE: the interpersonalization of the teaching process at a distance
Central concept: ÒNon-contiguous communicationÓ describes that a learner and an instructor / institution are separated in time and place. It involves emotional involvement and self-study to develop a teaching theory of guided didactic conversation.
Primary focus: to establish a personal relationship with the learner as motivation to learning

Keegan (1986, 1990)

A theory of reintegration of the teaching and learning acts
It is characterized by the separation of teaching acts in time and place from the learning acts.
Central concept: reintegration of teaching and learning acts
Primary focus: Recreation of the link between teaching and learning through interpersonal communication.

Garrison (1989)

A theory of communication and learner control
Central concepts: Education transaction is Òbased upon seeking understanding and knowledge through dialogue and debate.Ó
The learning process requires two-way communication between the learner and teacher.
Learner control is to replace the concept of independence or autonomy: Ò... the opportunity and ability to influence and direct a course of events cannot not be established by only one partyÓ but based on interrelationship between independence (self-directedness) and support
Primary focus: Facilitation of education transaction
Technology is required to support the educational transaction.
Technology and DE is inseparable.

Verduin & Clark (1991)

A three-dimensional theory of DE
Central concepts: Dialogue / support reflects the primary purpose of dialogue as a support for learners. Structure / specialized describes that competence in a field, or specialized competence is a function of the structure. Competence / self-directedness includes autonomy and competence in the field of study.
Primary focus: requiring both the learning task and learner

Synthesis

The prominent influence of DE with its primary focus on the learner is communication.

The decreasing emphasis on the notion of distance but on the education process.

Learning process involves the content, the learner and the teaching role with the DE setting.

II. Focus

Theory and definition of DE in the use of new media

(DE in the information age) Keegan (1990)

Definition of DE: quasi-permanent teacher-learner separation; central involvement of a formal organization; use of technical media; provision of two-way communication; quasi-permanent separation of the learner from a learning group. Boyd (1993)

Distance education is education which is the systematically organized, transmission of selected elements of culture to be internally carried and used by people. Education is broadly concerned with human fulfillment, with confluent multi-sensory learning, and with meta-cognitive skills, such as learning how to effectively organize and manage further learning. Distance education should be able to carry out ongoing collaborative autonomous learning. It is one part of educational system, which is learner-centered. Prescriptive theory for distance education systems

Essential focal system dimensions: eight descriptive and prescriptive dimensions of the constitutive sub-systems, including

Cybernetic principles for design, development and operation of systems of actors and agents include

Terms

Media - the generic forms of communication associated with particular ways of representing knowledge. In distance education, the most important four media are text, audio, TV, computing. ( Bates, 1993:214)
Technology - Media can be carried by more than one technology, which is primarily either one-way or two way. In distance education, print in correspondence study is the technology in presenting text, and broadcasting, video-cassettes, videodiscs, cable, satellite and microwave are technologies through TV.
Cyberspace - The term was invented by Gibson in 1984 to describe the new encompassing medium of communication and control. It is Òa graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in human system.Ó ( Boyd, 1993:245 ) It contains virtual realities which are the worlds of on-line DE institutions.
New technology - Telecommunications and computer technology are uniting into one cybernetic global medium. Sight, sound and motion are all communicated and manipulated, stored and routed by digital electronics / photonics. New technology leads to the Òvirtual realitiesÓ of Òcyberspace.Ó

DE in the future

example discussion points: the virtual library; what to do with all that bandwidth; keeping "education" above water in the sea of technology.

DE goals

(Boyd, 1993:238 ) Good education is the systematically effective and efficient transmissive re-creation of the most adaptively potent and traditionally rooted elements of a culture. It cultivates autonomy and Òself-integration,Ó collaboratively and traditional rootedness. It aims at providing hopeful opportunities to alienated people who might feel desperately cut off. On international level, DE promotes symbiosis among the various cultures of the world. It means living together in a mutually supportive relationship, retaining oneÕs own distinct identity and identity propagation continuity.

Our vision for the future: from class final assignments

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