Solutions with Technology

As high school teachers, we try to provide opportunities for students to learn in an interesting manner and opportunities that the student may not have if not in our classroom. For this reason, I choose to research and solve the problems that are presented in scenario 2 in our course applications. In this scenario, students will be exposed to a museum that is located across the county, speak with the curators and hold discussions amongst themselves about the museum. Nothing is more valuable to students than such an authentic learning opportunity and without distance learning tools; it would not be possible for these students to experience the museum. As an instructional designer however, we need to be sure that the lesson as well as the course, are set up systematically in order to be effective. According to the course reading, “A critical part of the process is to consider the components of a successful learning system. These components are the learners, the content, the method and materials, and the environment, including technology (Albright, et al, 2012).” In this particular scenario, we already have the content, the learners and some of the material and methods but we really need to take a closer look at the technology or environment to figure out how best to help the students experience the museum.

In order to convey the “virtual tour” or video of the museum, the teacher could use Skype. “Skype in the Classroom” is used in situations such as this by over 60,000 teachers to convey all sorts of topics to their students (Skype, 2013). Skype can be used on smart phones, desktop computers, laptops, and tablets and can therefore be carried around the museum by a tour guide or employee of the museum in order to show the students in the scenario. Teachers are always working with a tight budget and a positive aspect of this plan is that Skype is completely free of cost. Limitations of this plan would be that the museum must have access to the internet as well as a tablet or smart phone that would allow this plan to take place. However, with planning, these limitations can be alleviated. Students would be able to see the images in the museum as well as hear the tour guide giving explanations and descriptions. After their tour of the museum, the technology could be used to hold the meeting with curators of the museum. Skype allows the callers to both use the video feature so the students can see the curators and the curators can also see the students in their classroom on the other side of the country. The curators would even be able to call on students who raise their hand for a question.

Skype in the Classroom has been used successfully for virtual tours such as this situation, online tutoring, videoconferencing, foreign language learning, student inclusion (ill students), culture lessons, and bringing interactivity and creativeness to lessons (Nosal, 2011).

The scenario also provides another design issue of a discussion tool. The teacher would like the students to be able to discuss what they saw at the museum as an assessment tool. To accomplish this objective, the students and the teacher will use the Web 2.0 tool Conceptboard. Conceptboard allows for collaboration through emails, collaborative screen viewing, document uploads, etc. The teacher will be able to set up a topic and students can join in the discussion on the Conceptboard. The website updates in real time and the teacher is able to moderate the discussion (Conceptboard, 2013). This tool is the ideal tool for the job because supporting documents and files can be uploaded in order to support the discussion. In this situation, that particular feature could come in handy when speaking of famous paintings or items that were seen in the museum; the teacher could upload a picture or supporting documents in order to remind the students. Limitations of this tool are that the site does have a fee to use (Conceptboard, 2013).

2013. Skype in the Classroom. Education.skype.com.

2013. About Conceptboard. Conceptboard.com.

Albright, M., Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., and Zvacek, S. Teaching and Learning at a Distance. 2012. Pearson, Boston, MA.

Nosal, Kasia. 2011. Skype in the Classroom. Edcaedu; The World Wide Education Community. 

Week 1 Application; Distance Learning Defined

Previously to this course, my experience with distance learning has been taking other online classes through Walden as well as some distance learning via webcam in some of my undergraduate college courses. With minimal knowledge of the topic, I have heard a lot of chatter about online high schools, which would be considered distance learning, because I work in a traditional high school. The observations or I would more likely say misconceptions are that the students who drop out of our high school attend the online high school because it’s easier and a last resort for students who can’t handle traditional education. Personally, I think that distance learning has a lot of possible pitfalls and can easily be abused if not used correctly but distance learning can be a great tool for all ages and I believe that it is the future of education. In one way or another, distance learning will be seeping into all of our lives in some way either through cell phone apps or online courses.

With all of that being said my definition of distance learning before starting to read this week’s resources is: “Distance Learning is a form of education that has a varied amount of uses and forms as well as a varied amount of users that use it to advance their understanding of a topic through the use of technology and distance learning is the wave of the future in the field of education.”

After reading this week’s resources, I still do believe that distance learning is going to replace education as we know it today. However, I believe that I understand it a little more clearly and with more depth. As stated in this week’s reading, “Keegan also concluded that distance education is a distinct field of education, parallel to and a complement of conventional education (Simonson, et. Al, 2012).” I really think that this is an all-encompassing explanation to distance learning. Its traditional education with some modifications and because of that, it has unique properties that lends itself to a unique demographic of individuals, presents its own challenges and benefits. I also learned this week that distance learning does not technically necessarily include technology. Of course in this day and age, it usually does but it didn’t start out that way and doesn’t always include the use of internet, computers and electronics. I also think that from reading this week, it is clear that distance learning will continue to morph and change in the coming years to meet the needs of the learners and the resources and technology available.

Previous to this week, I really thought of distance education as only online high schools or webcasts of certain lectures. I am obviously mistaken in this assumption. As mentioned in the reading this week resources on distance education, it clear includes things like higher education and even training for corporate situations (Huett, Moller and Forshay, 2008). I had never considered these situations and their need for online learning before but it is clearly been used for these platforms.

After the reading I will modified my definition to be, “Distance Learning is a form of education that has a varied amount of uses such as in high school, college and even corporate platforms that use it to advance their understanding of a topic through the use of technology and distance learning is the wave of the future in the field of education Distance Learning is future but is not without its challenges but creates opportunities for many.”

I have stated that I think that I think that distance learning is the way of the future. I believe that it will take over in all aspects of education and continue to become more user friendly and common. I also believe that this will lead to more people becoming educated and more people continuing on with their education beyond high school or perhaps into higher education beyond their undergraduate degrees. The development of online apps that cater to distance learning will become more numerous and as technology in our electronics such as cell phones, tablets and computers change, distance learning will fall in suit with it. I also believe that the learners using distance education will become younger and younger. Technologically advanced generations will use this option more than their older generations.

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.

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 2: Higher education).TechTrends, 52(4), 66-70.

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), 63–6 7.

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