Week Twelve

What is distance education? What types of support are critical to the success of distance education? Why?

Distance education can be broadly defined as the delivery of instruction to students who are separated from a teacher by time and or/ location. The teacher may be located at a school site, but the student may be "attending" the class at home, using technology to bridge the gap. Or both teacher and student may be at either the same or different locations but available to work on the course only at differing hours. Once again technology serves to bridge the gap. In such cases, instructional events and interactions occur just as they do in traditional settings. Distance learning systems require that teachers and students be ready to work within a new environment. There are two key aspects to their necessary readiness: readiness to accept new roles and readiness to work with new technologies. Teachers who use distance and alternative learning techniques might find themselves surprised by an increase in the demands on their time. It is critical to insure that adequate technical support is in place. In addition to the teacher being present for clarification andf questions, a media center offering a wide variety of resources is also typically present.