“Diversity is an invaluable source of talent,
creativity and experience.
It comprises all the differences in culture,
religion, nationality, race,
ethnicity, gender, age and social origin – in short,
everything
that makes the individual singular and unique within
society.”
~ Siemens
(n.d.)
For this week’s assignment we were
asked to view the video of George Siemens.
In this video, Georg Siemens discussed the growing acceptance of
distance education in today’s corporate and educational spheres, including
three possible elements of distance education that are creating more effective
learning experiences and giving distance education an identity of its own
distinct from face-to-face courses: (a) global diversity, (b) communications,
and (c) collaborative interaction (Laureate, 2008). We were asked if we agreed or disagreed with
his view. We were then asked to select
one of these three elements for reflection in this module and respond to the
following in our blog:
1. How has this element evolved? As technology advances so does the
transformation of distance learning. Personally,
I have seen the element of global diversity in distance education evolve since
I began my own educational journey in the summer of 2005. The number and types of individuals who are
making the choice of learning in a distance educational environment seem to be
growing each year. With each new class I
take there seems to be more and more classmates who reside outside of the
United States. As technology continues
to advance so will the global diversity element of distance education.
2. What online tools are available today
to facilitate these interactions among learners? Online tools such as Blackboard, Skype and
social media sites such as Facebook allow students to communicate easier than
ever before. Personally, I love the
discussion aspects of the distance education classroom. I feel I learn more from my classmates in
this manner than I ever did in a face-to-face classroom environment.
References
Guiding
principles for promoting and managing diversity. (n.d.). Siemens global website.
Retrieved from https://inttanet.cp.siemens.de/ila
Laureate
Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). The future of distance education. [Video
webcast]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.
jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher %
3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_4079298_1%26url%3D
BLOGS
I COMMENTED ON FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT
sportz75.wordpress.com
http://brandyhiett.wordpress.com
Enjoyed your Blog. I completely agree that the diversity of students that are participating in the distance education platform has continued to grow and the benefits of viewing others prospective are great. In the f2f format, most students only witness a small percentage of students from different areas of the country and world and how they view things. In the distance education format, a student from Mississippi can collaborate with a student from California and compare/contrast the two environments whether in education or in business.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Since I have been a student at Walden, I have developed as a scholar and formed relationships that I probably would have never formed in a f2f setting. Online, learners seem to feel safer and are more eager to express their own views and perspectives of issues that are being discussed in class, and often times, students will share links and add other files that extend the discussions. George Siemens's perspective of increased acceptance of distance education is right on point in my opinion.
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