I went back and read every classmates’ definition of distance education.  The majority of us seemed to believe that distance education happened in a location other than a classroom and that people are located in various locations scattered throughout the world.   Another common theme is that teachers and students exhange information at various times and places and “education is gained with the professor/educator in one place or time and the learner receiving the education at another place or time” (Angie Blanton).

Most of us also stated that technology was involved in distance education.  Della Pack further explained that “distance learning classes are delivered by ITV, television, web-based instruction or web-enhanced instruction”.

Something we failed to mention in our definitions……………….. 

Students enrolled in distance education courses must work on their own and take responsibility for their own learning.  Distance education involves discovery learning and problem based learning.  There is no lecture to attend each week where a student can take detailed notes……………..instead the student must read articles and discover answers on his/her own.  Students can seek assistance when they need it, however it is up to them to find the necessary resources to solve their problem.

This is so true.  We as teachers need to be open to learning new things every day.  I hear teachers complain and gripe about p.d. every year and most won’t attend any p.d. sessions that they don’t get paid for.  We teach our students that they need to be lifelong learners, but then we don’t follow this practice ourselves.  Can you imagine what a difference it would make if all teachers read journals related to their teaching areas?  If all teachers collaborated together and shared ideas and tips with each others?  If all teachers attended p.d. whenever they wanted to learn something new, regardless of whether they were being paid for it or not.  If all teachers subsribed to RSS feeds to websites that were related to education. If all teachers reflected on their day; their successes and failures in a blog? What a difference it would make in our own lives…….

I agree with Nate that people often misinterpret body language.  However, I often think that emails can be misinterpreted as well.  I have received emails from people at work and judging from the way the message read, I thought that the person that wrote the message was upset or angry with me.  However, when I went to talk to this person face to face, it was then that I discovered that the message was poorly worded and that the person was not upset with me at all.  Some people are poor writers; this can interfere with the message they are trying to convey.  Others struggle to communicate clearly and effectively with others because they are shy and withdrawn and therefore benefit from written communication.  I think that a person’s strenths in communicating (whether it be through written or verbal communication) have to be taken into consideration as well when we look at interpreting meaning from the content of messages.

I agree with Johnny that to really know someone you need to see their facial expressions and hear the inflections in their voice. The communication we have had in cyberspace is better than I had expected.  IM is in real time.  However, for example, I have never met Nate in person.  I have seen his picture; from reading his messages on screen I know that he has a good sense of humor, but without seeing facial expressions and hearing the inflections in his voice it is difficult to get a true sense of who he really is.  We rely so much on nonverbal cues for meaning.  So much of what is being said is not spoken.  This is one downfall with distance education.  I believe it will improve in the future. 
Already, some people have webcams on their computers and they can look at each other on screen and hear each other talk; only time will tell how things will change. 

I was really intrigued by this article.  I can picture 4th and 5th grade students each having their own aggregrators and subscribing to RSS feeds that they are interested in.  Kentucky requires students to learn a massive amount of content.  Therefore, teachers have to spend less time on topics than they would like.   So for example, when a teacher teaches a unit on planets she may only have time to implement lessons on that topic for 4 weeks, however some of the students might want to continue studying planets because they are really interested in that topic.  By allowing students to have their own aggregators, these students could subscibe to a website or blog on planets and continue to learn additional information about the planets.  These students could then write blogs about what they have learned; the teacher can then grade the students on science and language arts.  Test scores would probably go up because students would take responsibility for their own learning.  The teacher could move on to other content as needed to meet state requirements, while students could individualize their learning by subsribing to feeds that correlate to their interests.  It seems like this idea would keep both teachers and students happy!

According to an article I read in The Chronicle of Higher Education  written by Scott Carlson, Google and the library at the Univeristy of California have joined together to create digitized books.  According to the contract signed by the University, the library will temporarily loan Google 2.5 million of its volumes so that they can be scanned.  Google will initially scan 600 of these books a day, but will eventually work its way up to scanning 3,000 books a day.  Google promises to return any books pulled for scanning back to the library within 15 days.  Google plans on scanning these books for free.  Google and the university will receive copies of the digital books, however the university has some restrictions.  The university cannot share or sell its newly digitized books with any other library.  Google has also partnered with other universities and they too cannot share or sell any of their digitized books with other libraries.

So what does this mean? Google has a lot of POWER!  These libraries are desperate to get books digitized and they are willing to let Google do it.  They would be crazy not to.  It is free and Google can digitize 3000 books a day!  However, what does Google plan to do with all of these digitized books in the future?  Sell them to libraries for a fee?  Sell them to online users for  a fee?  They will be the only company that has access to a comprehensive library of digitized books.  Some people have predicted that Google will “own” the virtual world someday and because of that some univeristy librarians are urging other librarians to push Google to release their future plans for the digitized books.  These librarians want to know Google’s plans before they release any more books for digitilization. 

Will Google share their plans?  My guess is no.  They have enough libraries willing to loan books that they don’t have to tell anything they don’t want to.  I’m guessing that whatever Google is up to will make them a large profit in the long run.  They always seem to come out on top.

Name of article:  U. of California Will Provide Up to 3,000 Books a Day to Google for Scanning, Contract States

http://chronicle.com/free/2006/08/2006082501t.htm

I agree that traditional classrooms are not “good enough”.  When I think of the old methods of teaching (and I’m sad to say that many teachers are still doing things this way) I picture a classroom full of students facing the blackboard listening to the teacher lecture.  The classroom is so quiet you can hear a pen drop.  Noone talks other than to ask the teacher a question.  The students do nothing other than worksheets and assignments out of a textbook.  Not much learning is taking place because there is very little communication or interaction between the students.  The teacher is the only one that talks; the students listen.  This scenario does not work and I agree completely with Nate that it simply is not “good enough”.

However, I believe that some of the newer methods of teaching are more effective.  For example, in a constructivist kindergarten classroom, it is rarely quiet.  My students sit at tables and work in centers.  For example, this week they have been working together to put the letters of the alphabet in order.  I expect them to help each other and talk to each other as they complete tasks.  They are constructing their own knowledge; the students all work at their own levels.  Some can only put half of the alphabet together; some can do it all.  The ones that can do it all will soon move on to a new task……matching lower and uppercase letters.  I believe that this type of classroom still has room for improvement, but does not limit learning like the traditional classroom does, instead it enhances it. 

This past summer, I was watching Good Morning America and saw a special about myspace.com.  I had never heard of My Space before.  The focus of the Good Morning America special was on how many college students are posting massive amounts of information about themselves on My Space.  When these students apply for jobs, employers are searching for these interviewees on My Space and finding out information about them that makes them undesirable candidates.  For example, some of these young people have posted pictures of themselves out partying and drinking.  They have also written blogs about their daily activities; and have posted private information that most employers would typically not find desirable in an employee.

This got me thinking more about blogs………so many young people post tons of information in them.  A blog is basically a public diary.  I am very uncomfortable sharing so much information about  myself with others; I like to keep some things to myself or only share it with close friends.  However many teenagers see no problem with this.  Why is this?  Is this a difference in our generations? 

Should it be our job as educators to teach our students what is appropriate to publish on the Internet and what is not?  We teach them so many other things………character education included; should this not be another thing to add to the list? It seems to me like it should be, especially if a blog could keep a student from getting a job.    It is irresponsible of us, in my opinion, to teach students how to create a blog, but not also inform them of the consequences of publishing too much personal information on the web.

Okay, I’ll admit……….last Sunday I was EXTREMELY overwhelmed.  I have always considered myself to be fairly technological savvy.  I use PowerPoint regulary in my classroom; I’ve know how to create a digital storybook; I always use the Internet to search for information I need (I couldn’t even tell you the last time I resorted to using a dictionary or encyclopedia to look up information).  But an aggregator?  That word was totally foreign to me.  I soon started calling it an aggrevator instead of an aggregator because I was aggrevated to death that I couldn’t find one and get it loaded onto my computer!  And then there was the whole feeding the gator thing?  What in the world was I supposed to do with that?  Thank goodness for wikipedia or I would have never discovered the meanings of these new vocabulary words. 

A week later it seems silly that I was so overwhelmed by two little words.  Would you believe I even considered dropping the class at one point (between back to school stress and the long “to do” list last week for this class) I just wasn’t sure that I could handle it all right now.  I’m sure all of you know what I mean by back to school stress……many nights I am still working on things for my kindergarten  students at 10:00.  However, now that I have the first week under my belt I feel like I can handle anything new that comes my way. 

I was a little overwhelmed at first by the “to do” list, especially when I saw the word “aggregator” and I had no clue what it was or how to get one.  However, I have found that I have learned more by having to search for information myself and discover the answers on my own.  I also feel like I can handle anything else that is thrown at me in this class; since I have now officially survived the the first week!