why I am passionate about distance education

Distance education,through a variety of modalities, has played a role in my life from high school to today. When I was in high school I lived in rural area that required that I travel 45 miles one way to high school or live in town. My parents and I opted that I live in town, making the trip on occasion. I soon tired of living in town with relatives, high school, and I was the normal impatient teenage anxious to get on with being an adult. I am not sure how I figured it out but I found out about correspondence courses and that the University of South Dakota offered correspondence courses at the high school level. So I urged my parents and the high school that I attended to accept two correspondence courses so that I could graduate from high school a year early. It is apparent, that even at this age I was not engaged in the social scene of high school at all! Well I was and I had some good friends that I am still friends with today but I was eager to get to college and get on with that next phase of adult life.


I went on to college and while there I met my husband and soon afterward got married, this also meant a halt to my college education. I finished out at technical school and we moved to Wyoming. Wyoming is a rural state with one university and seven community colleges. The University of Wyoming is located in one corner of the state and the community colleges are located throughout out the state. After having two kids I enrolled in community college to complete my associates degree. At that point it was fully my intention to complete my associates degree and get a job. Close to completion of my associates degree I learned that I could get a bachelor's degree from the University of Wyoming via a distance. The modalities used at point were face to face with instructors located at the outreach sites, video conferencing and teleconferencing. In addition to this I enrolled in correspondence courses from other universities.


I was able to complete my bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of WY via a distance using these modalities. It wasn't until the late 90's early 2000's that online learning was applied at UWY. Even though I had completed my master's in public administration I decided to take some online business courses from UWY. This was fortuitous it was after this time that I got a job at the local community college and decided to get a Ph. D. I found an online university, Touro College International, which offered an online Ph. D. in Business. I contacted them, worked out the details and started my Ph. D. Touro College International, (TUI now) was a perfect solution to a working parent like me. Accredited, fully online, and an easy to use course management system I quickly found success with this university. Not only that I was able to take advantage of the opportunity to teach online, as a graduate assistant with them. This truly made the experience a rewarding one as I interacted with students and I was able to reduce the costs of my tuition.

This is why I am passionate about online education, the opportunities that it provides to working adults and adults with children who may not otherwise be able to go to college. My experience as student, instructor and administrator in the online education/distance education realm has been a rewarding one. There is room for both avenues of getting an education, face to face or online..and there are students who need to have access to both or one or the other for various reasons. Franky my interactions in an online classroom have been richer in many ways than face to face...much of that depended upon the course design. For students who are pursuing online/distance education today, it should be more than a matter of convenience, it should be a matter of accessing a quality education.

Cathy Anderson
Report on World of Warcraft, Eve, Evony and Second Life

I have looked at three different games in the last couple of months. One was World of Warcraft, Eveonline, and Evony.

I will start with Evony. There is little or no application of this game for learning. It even bills itself as a game that you can play without being discovered at work. I didn't spend much time here, but the screen shots are below.

You can buy games tokens, etc., in order to gain status in this game. I am not sure there is much incentive to do that. There are some nice features to this game, you can build you own town, there is a nice email feature that I wish Second Life had, and a very active chat feature. In order to really get into this game I think one would have to spend some there and reviewing the forum that is related to the game.

I tried to ask questions regarding the game in the chat but that seemed to be more for people just “goofing off” saying they were “bored,” and that they were new in the game. The forums for the game is here http://bbs.evony.com/forumdisplay.php?f=7. The forum actually seems very informative. I spent some time here looking for information on how to play the game and found some idea here.
This is not a game that I would recommend for the classroom, given the tone of the chat that sometimes gets a little “risque.” I also would not recommend it given the fact that it encourages player to play at work and even a means to hide the browser address. I do think that given some time if one got into it it may have some fun aspects.

Eveonline;
Eve is a very sophisticated game, it had a 10 day trial so I decided to take advantage of this to see what this game is all about. In this game I learned that one should read up on a game as much as possible in order to learn about the game before taking advantage of the free trial. It would have been nice to know more about the game before actually starting the game.

For Eve I actually think that going here to the WikiPedia entry on the game is a good way to start. I went through the tutorial in order to get comfortable with the game. This game, without a doubt has a steep learning curve. There are many menus, huds, etc., on the screen.

While I didn't get too deep into the game what could make this game a game for learning is the ability to develop critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, and learn about how economies are developed. There are several elements of this game from which a player could learn something such as crime, communication skills in a game environment, governance, and team building. I am not entirely sure that this game would lend much towards learning in a particular course due to the fact that those unfamiliar with gaming or this specific game may have a very steep learning curve.

This game also features a fairly sophisticated chat element. Unlike Second Life where you can only chat within your groups or contacts this provides an ability to chat with anyone who is online and in the game.




The final game I will address is World of Warcraft. I went into World of Warcraft prior to enrolling in this course, but decided to include it here because I actually think that this is a game I would enjoy, however this is not a game for learning either. In fact I do think that using these games for learning would be a stretch. There is an ease to this game and an outcome that seems to make sense. Again the application of this game is the networking with others. I think a student could gain critical thinking skills that could be applied to life from participating in this game. Do I think that this game “brings out” violent tendencies in players..no I don't.

When it comes to gaming I agree with my teacher from a class I am taking in Second Life, he is John Jamison, he presents that it is the state of “flow” that we want stud nets to gain from a learning experience similar to what they achieve when engaged in and playing a game. Can we create games that are geared to a specific subject or learning opportunity that allows the learner to achieve a similar state....I would like to think so .

Finally I would like to talk about the use of Second Life for learning. I have been exploring Caledon a bit for fun and find it a fascinating place in which to learn about life in Victorian times. Caledon is described as “The Independent State of Caledon is the name of a rapidly growing group of Victorian-themed Estate Sims owned by Desmond Shang. Caledon can be considered an example of a developing micronation.”

This is a role play sim, in part. Part based in history and part in fantasy. There is much to be learned here in Caledon. I explore a little when I get a chance. There are several role play sims in Second Life from Western, to Science Fiction, to those based on fictional books like the Harry Potter books and more. This environment can be immersive and engaging, however Second Life like any online virtual world has a learning curve that can be a barrier to learning and access to the content. I have included some screen shots:

Overview of the Edgeless University

earner centered/ The Edgeless University “perfect storm”

The authors of The Edgeless University assert that universities are facing times like no other, the define this as the “perfect storm” a time in which universities “are to offer more varied provision to a growing number of students in an era when they can no longer depend on ever-increasing allocation of funds.” (retrieved from http://www.demos.co.uk/files/Edgeless_University_-_web.pdf?1245715615 page 15). Colleges and universities will not remain unscathed by the changes and challenges they face in the current economy. Like any other entity they will have to innovate and change, some of these changes will be more drastic than for others.

Further challenges beyond funding and increased student demand may also include unprecedented numbers of retirements by faculty and staff further changes will be driven by innovations in technology.

In order to provide online delivery of educational content to students as economically as possible universities may move to accessing free Web 2.0 tools and integrating them into their learning management system or in place of a learning management system. As it is noted in The Edgeless University ..

“Open repositories of online content, social media networks like Facebook and the use of virtual learning can all help universities provide more flexibility and new ways for people to access scholarly and research material. Open repositories of online content, social media networks like Facebook and the use of virtual learning can all help universities provide more flexibility and new ways for people to access scholarly and research material.”

Further initiatives include designing the learner centered/student centered university. These terms maybe defined as:

Learner centered: to refer to environments that pay careful attention to the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs that learners bring to the educational setting. (retrieved from http://cndls.georgetown.edu/crossroads/vkp/resources/glossary/learnercentered.htm, July 23, 2009)

Learner-centered education places the student at the center of education. It begins with understanding the educational contexts from which a student comes. (retrieved from http://www.abor.asu.edu/4_special_programs/lce/afc-defined_lce.htm, July 23, 2009)

Examples of learner-centered educational practices from the University of Arizona include, but are not limited to:
• Collaborative group learning, both inside and outside the classroom;
• Individual student research and discovery;
• Research and discovery by students and faculty together;
• Problem-based inquiry learning;
• Student-faculty studio and performance activities;
• Asynchronous distance learning;
• Synchronous interactive distance learning;
• Service learning activities;
• Hands-on, experiential learning activities;
• On-site field experiences;
• Self-paced tutorials. (retrieved from http://www.abor.asu.edu/4_special_programs/lce/afc-defined_lce.htm, July 23, 2009)

From Maricopa Community College:
The learning college is based on six key principles:
• The learning college creates substantive change in individual learners.
• The learning college engages learners as full partners in the learning process, with learners assuming primary responsibility for their own choices.
• The learning college creates and offers as many options for learning as possible.
• The learning college assists learners to form and participate in collaborative learning activities.
• The learning college defines the roles of learning facilitators by the needs of the learners.
• The learning college and its learning facilitators succeed only when improved and expanded learning can be documented for its learners. (retrieved from http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~mdesoto/weblearn/index.htm; July 23, 2009)

• Instruction changes from being teacher-centered and content-driven, and becomes more learner-centered and learning process-driven.
• The student’s role changes from that of being a passive recipient or empty receptacle into which the instructor “deposits” knowledge—the “banking theory” of education (Freire, 1970)—to that of an engaged learner and active agent in the learning process.
• The instructor’s role expands from that of a knowledge-laden professor who professes truths and disseminates factual information, to that of being a learning mediator or facilitator who assumes the following roles. (retrieved from http://www.oncourseworkshop.com/Miscellaneous018.htm, July 23, 2009)

Weimer outlines the key premises of learner-centered teaching as:

• Assume that students are capable learners who will blossom as power shifts to a more egalitarian classroom.

• Use content not as a collection of isolated facts, but as a way for students to critically think about the big questions in the field.

• Change the role of teacher from sole authoritarian to fellow traveler in search of knowledge.

• Return the responsibility for learning to the students, so that they can understand their learning strengths and weaknesses and feel self-directed in their knowledge quest.

• Utilize assessment measures not just to assign grades, but as our most effective tools to promote learning. (retrieved from http://www.insightjournal.net/Volume3/StudentPerceptionsLearnerCenteredTeaching.pdf, July 23, 2009)


Woven through these observations and definitions is the use of technology to strengthen the relationship between student and institution, student with other students, student and faculty. Technology, which engages learners, can be used to build relationships.