Financial Times (FT), in his report on Distance Learning (published on March 19) quotes James Fleck, dean of UK based Open University Business School (OUBS) saying: We are trying to drop the term ‘distance learning. I don’t think it accurately portrays what OUBS does.’
Broadband service and synchronous tools that allow us to webcast, talk with, and 3D avatarize with our students can help us all stay engaged and learning.
Change comes slowly, of course. Many of the faculty, at least where I work, are reluctant to take on new technologies as they worry about the reliability and usability, pointing to each disruptive e-mail outage or some other server belch as evidence of the fragility of the digital world. Others are concerned about student dial-up connections and mixed time zones, while some cannot find the time to even think about learning new tools as they work to stay up with discussion board postings and e-mail submitted questions and assignments.
It is interesting to contemplate that, when we do begin to fully integrate synchronous technologies into what we currently think of as distance learning, we will have to change even its name as we will have removed the distance through the use of the tool.
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