Technology in Distance Education

Nowadays when we talk about Distance Education (DE) we would certainly relate it with distance learning and ‘online’ term will definitely attached to it. Terminology such as parcel notes, learning package and postal documents will not be in tune when discussing about distance learning. Why? Those are all communication tools, but why? Is it about the speed of communication? How about its efficiency? Does it determine the success of learning? Which is the best tool that can guarantee learning takes place?

When talking about distance learning … these terms will definitely click in our mind.

The communication tools for distance learning as mention above comprises of one-way communication type, two-ways communication type, collaborative tools, personal learning environment tools, multimedia tools and even 3-D virtual learning tool.

So, which is the best tool for distance learning to takes place?

Personally, I’ve tried almost 80% of the technologies mention either it’s related to my learning requirements or as part of my exploration on learning technology options. I do get fascinated with the technologies available for distance learning. In fact, I do feel envious with technologies in WWW nowadays because during my high school, colleges and undergraduates time, I’m deprived from all these technologies. It would be different I think if I’m able to access to all learning tools in those years. It would be different in the way I learn and acquire knowledge. It would be different in the way I look at certain problems by the way of searching different options to solve it. It would be a good diversion from being too cramped in lecture hall listening to 3 hours lecture. It would broaden my learning when I’m able to chat and discuss with others rather than only with classmates.

There are so much options and opportunities for distance learning to takes place in the WWW nowadays. As a designer and trainer, it would be a relief that all these technologies available on the Net and some are free for use. But how do we choose the best technology to deliver our teaching? How can we suit the contents to be delivered with the medium of technology we choose? What is the best instructional strategy to be adopted when we plan to deliver our content over technology we have choose?

When planning to select and use any online technology to deliver learning, we need to know who is our target user, their accessibility to technology we propose and learner readiness to use the technology. This is important for the facilitator to avoid future problems when learner decides not to cooperate with the technology.

How about our content? Does it suitable to be produce using the technology we choose? As instructor, we need to know the capability of the technology to support contents that we have. We also need to know how big or how deep the contents to be publish over the technology.

Now, we have the technology and the contents. How do we ensure that with these tools learner will get benefit from it? We need suit it with learning styles and instructional strategies that can best fit the learners.

Oppss, to achieve the learning outcomes, do we really need to use this technology? This will bring us back to our lesson plan and instructional design of learning to ensure that the best learning can takes place in the suitable medium.