Perspectives on Distance Education
I was speaking with a colleague of mine at the school I teach at a week or so ago and found out that she's taking a science course via distance education. I'm not sure of the title of the course, but I think it has something to do with rocks, weather and/or meteorology. The course is being piloted by the local AEA and my colleagues claims it is a LOAD of work. It's setup in some sort of read and then take tests and quizzes format. She is overwhelmed to say the least. If she didn't have a student teacher this semester, she admits that she would not have time to complete the coursework due to having a family and simply keeping up at school. She also mentioned that she is getting tired of the format of the course, even though she admits it is sometimes very engaging. The level of interactivity is high due to the online java applets and experiments the reading provides, but she told me that it is almost TOO stimulating. I never thought I would hear this perspective on distance education. I think distance education can be stereotyped as boring, repetitive and less-than-engaging. This has not been the case for me at Iowa State so far. Like I said in my last post, I find myself diving into the class discussions and actively looking forward to the next assignments. Read the other posts I've made on this blog and you'll soon realize that distance education is simply an alternative to 'traditional' education. For me, it's an alternative I will continue to embrace and promote to others I encounter. Perhaps I will be able to teach in this format someday. Only time will tell....