Distance learning

Looking back at my own experiences with distance learning, or at least what I believed it to be and with the things that I have learned this week I realize that there is a lot that I have to learn but I know more than what I first realized.  Thinking of distance learning I had some experiences with it while I worked at a charter school here in Cincinnati, at this school they decided to have some supplemental classes with Virtual High School (VHS) which did not work as well as I believe it could have.  The students had a lot of difficulty completing quality work with this program because of the limited amount of time they had available to work and the lack of clear leadership at the school. 

What I thought of as distance learning at that time was simply completing some work online that would satisfy the requirements of a course to earn credit to graduate.  I always thought it was for social recluses that could not handle a traditional classroom or school environments and for some of the children at the school I was working at this was true, but what I found was disturbing.  What I found was that the kids there were not learning anything but it was not just a problem with VHS but with all of the classrooms (mine included).  There was a system of dysfunction at this school that was run more as a business and the more students that were enrolled there the more money the administration earned.  I found that I was the only person there who had a teaching certification and any experience working in a real school and I could see many things that needed to be changed but it was in my best interest to move away from that business with the façade of a school.

The one thing that I did come from working there was that technology and the idea of distance learning could be extremely effective but if it were implemented properly.  I decided to look into some type of distance learning and stumbled upon Walden University and enrolled.  I was pleasantly surprised to find the effectiveness of the different courses that I had enrolled in.  I earned my MS. Ed. with an emphasis in Integrating Technology in the Classroom.  The learning that took place over the eighteen months that I was enrolled was phenomenal, I was able to collaborate with people from all over the United States and complete many things that would not have been possible in a traditional school.  The hours available to work online and at my own pace were key to being successful in my experience with distance learning.  The courses were laid out with detailed instructions that allowed me to plan out the time I needed to complete my course work and still have time for my job and family. 

So looking into what I believed distance learning to be was something that the teacher and students were separated by distance but still able to work together to complete work.  This is still in ways how I view distance learning but there are also some other factors that play into it that I have learned this past week, most notably what Dr. Simonson (2011) says is that a learning group is separated by distance and sometimes time.  This falls in line with what I have thought about distance learning, but looking into more resources, there is more to distance learning. According to Schlosser and Simonson (2009) distance learning is, “institution-based, formal education where the learning group is separated, and where interactive telecommunications systems are used to connect learners, resources, and instructors.” 

This “formal definition” adds more to what I thought distance learning to be, which is that yes the professor and students are separated by distance and time but there is a lot more than that.  They have to have proficient means of communication to share ideas and evaluate products.  Also the place that the learning is being held is an institution instead which is important because of the many different diploma mills that take money and give meaningless certificates.  

Distance Learning
Accredited institution	No diploma mills	Valid Certificates
Distance and Sometimes time seperations	Teachers and students not in the same state	Teachers and Students sometimes not in same country
Real Time Interatctions	Wikipages, Blogs	Social Networking, Skype
Working Collaboratively	Different Parts coming together