It seems straightforward enough, right? However, in my Foundations in
\nDistance Education course, we are exploring definitions of distance
\neducation that vary widely. This difference in definition and
\nperception has profound implications on research and instructional
\npractices … if you aren’t talking about the same thing, how can you
\ncompare results and recommendations? My “off the cuff” definition held
\nseparation of the learner from the teacher as a key consideration. I
\nwas not surprised to have others comment that synchronous real time
\ninteractions (mediated by technology) can overcome that separation.
\nHowever, can it? <\/p>\n
I agree that the availability of synchronous interaction does seem to make a
\ndifference when trying to overcome the “separation” of the learner.
\nSeparation then becomes more of an issue about the physical<\/i> separation
\nversus the ability for real time interaction. Even with real time synchronous interaction, there is still
\nfor me the nagging issue of not being physically present with the
\nteacher and peer learners (to continue a conversation over a cup of
\ncoffee after class, to thumb through some books in the professor’s
\noffice, to engage in informal “water cooler chats” in the hallway). To
\nme, as a student taking courses from hundreds of miles
\nfrom ODU, there is a difference in the educational experience from a
\ntraditional face to face experience which I attribute to the physical
\nseparation. In other words, due to my physical separation from my
\nteacher and peer learners, the educational experience is different
\nthan if I were physically present. While synchronous interactions (mediated by technology) can overcome some of
\nthis physical separation, there is still an informal human aspect
\nto the physical separation that I feel needs to be considered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It seems straightforward enough, right? However, in my Foundations in Distance Education course, we are exploring definitions of distance education that vary widely. This difference in definition and perception has profound implications on research and instructional practices … if you aren’t talking about the same thing, how can you compare results and recommendations? My “off…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[194,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-design","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3001,"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153\/revisions\/3001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designedtoinspire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}