Following are my reflections on third wave of DE.
In this wave the internet evolved to the point where it dominates the
technology of this wave. These reflections cover week 8 and 9 of OMDE 601.
A-ha Moment
Since the second week of the course I had a feeling that at some stage traditional education and DE had to converge. It was then with considerable relief that I saw this starting to happen in the third wave of DE. There were quite a few elements that led me to this conclusion. In the text that we had to read, Shale (2010) and Vaughan (2010) started me thinking that this wave would be the one where convergence started.
This was confirmed, for me, with the reading of Peters (2010) and Garrison (2009) and their opposite view of where the use of the internet originated within education. Peters (2010) maintains that it is a natural progression of the development of DE and Garrison (2009) says that traditional education started using the internet earlier and that online learning was the result thereof. After considering both viewpoints, I came to the conclusion that to some extent both are correct and that this is actually where we can see the convergence for the first time.
Revision of DE Definition
I think that my definition of DE, as revised in the second wave’s reflections, is general enough to cover DE in the third wave. This definition also shows that the only real difference between traditional education and DE is that, for the majority of the course, the student is removed from the source of teaching in DE and interacts face to face in traditional education. Even this is starting to get blurred with the introduction of blended courses (Vaughan, 2010).
Real World Application
From the start of the course it has been interesting to compare each wave to the courses that I teach at Unisa. As Unisa is in the process of changing from a wave 1 (correspondence education) institution to a wave 3 (internet) institution, it is fascinating to compare what we are doing at Unisa to the theory from the OMDE 601 course.
Unisa has created a student portal (my Unisa) to accommodate students and their various interactions on the internet. This portal is still evolving and is not yet on a par with the UMUC Leo portal.
Some of the components of OMDE 601 that I am considering for the courses that I teach are: Discussion groups and the weekly page. The courses that I teach are projects that the students have to complete to earn their qualifications. These projects are similar to the capstone course that MDE students have to complete. The discussion groups will allow me to monitor the progress of students with more precision and make me aware of problems earlier than at present. The weekly page will help with guiding the students through the necessary elements of the project. It will also be the ideal place to post articles and links that will help the students in that part of the course specifically. At present all the books and articles are listed in one place for the whole course and not linked to certain parts as is desirable.
From what we have studied in OMDE 601, the ideas that I have will require a complete rewrite of the course. This is already in progress and this course has given me some great ideas of how to improve my courses. Web 2.0 technology features prominently in this. I am looking at using social media for interaction with, and between, students.
General
Group grid. For this wave the group grid once again gave valuable insights to the work covered in week 8 and 9. I was responsible for the columns on predominant technology and theories/understanding of DE and found it quite interesting. Also noteworthy was the fact that technology that was not part of the third wave only a few years ago, has matured enough and is prevalent enough to now be considered part of the wave (Web 2.0, as per discussion with Lisa). I resolved the comments that Lisa made of wave 2 and edited the wave. I added input to the following columns in the grid: Systems/Ways of operating, teaching/learning theories and key authors. I also added and edited the references.
Theories. The theories of this wave were community of inquiry (CoI) and the equivalency theories. Also the connectivist pedagogy was discussed during these weeks. I made the connection between TD and CoI and highlighted the similarities of the two theories.
Convergence. As stated above this was the idea that made this wave all the more interesting to me.
References
Garrison, R. (2009). Implications of online learning for the conceptual development and practice of distance education. Journal of Distance Education, 23(2), 93-104. Retrieved from http://www.jofde.ca/index.php/jde/article/view/471/889
Peters, O. (2010). Distance education in transition: Developments and issues: Vol. 5 (5th ed.)[Adobe Digital edition]. Retrieved from Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg website: http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/
Shale, D. (2010). Beyond boundaries: The evolution of distance education. In M.F. Cleveland-Innes & D.R. Garrison (Eds.), An introduction to distance education: Understanding teaching and learning in a new era, (1st ed., pp.91-107). New York, N.Y.: Routledge.
Vaughan, N. D. (2010). Blended learning. In M.F. Cleveland-Innes & D.R. Garrison (Eds.), An introduction to distance education: Understanding teaching and learning in a new era, (1st ed., pp. 165-197). New York, N.Y.: Routledge.
A-ha Moment
Since the second week of the course I had a feeling that at some stage traditional education and DE had to converge. It was then with considerable relief that I saw this starting to happen in the third wave of DE. There were quite a few elements that led me to this conclusion. In the text that we had to read, Shale (2010) and Vaughan (2010) started me thinking that this wave would be the one where convergence started.
This was confirmed, for me, with the reading of Peters (2010) and Garrison (2009) and their opposite view of where the use of the internet originated within education. Peters (2010) maintains that it is a natural progression of the development of DE and Garrison (2009) says that traditional education started using the internet earlier and that online learning was the result thereof. After considering both viewpoints, I came to the conclusion that to some extent both are correct and that this is actually where we can see the convergence for the first time.
Revision of DE Definition
I think that my definition of DE, as revised in the second wave’s reflections, is general enough to cover DE in the third wave. This definition also shows that the only real difference between traditional education and DE is that, for the majority of the course, the student is removed from the source of teaching in DE and interacts face to face in traditional education. Even this is starting to get blurred with the introduction of blended courses (Vaughan, 2010).
Real World Application
From the start of the course it has been interesting to compare each wave to the courses that I teach at Unisa. As Unisa is in the process of changing from a wave 1 (correspondence education) institution to a wave 3 (internet) institution, it is fascinating to compare what we are doing at Unisa to the theory from the OMDE 601 course.
Unisa has created a student portal (my Unisa) to accommodate students and their various interactions on the internet. This portal is still evolving and is not yet on a par with the UMUC Leo portal.
Some of the components of OMDE 601 that I am considering for the courses that I teach are: Discussion groups and the weekly page. The courses that I teach are projects that the students have to complete to earn their qualifications. These projects are similar to the capstone course that MDE students have to complete. The discussion groups will allow me to monitor the progress of students with more precision and make me aware of problems earlier than at present. The weekly page will help with guiding the students through the necessary elements of the project. It will also be the ideal place to post articles and links that will help the students in that part of the course specifically. At present all the books and articles are listed in one place for the whole course and not linked to certain parts as is desirable.
From what we have studied in OMDE 601, the ideas that I have will require a complete rewrite of the course. This is already in progress and this course has given me some great ideas of how to improve my courses. Web 2.0 technology features prominently in this. I am looking at using social media for interaction with, and between, students.
General
Group grid. For this wave the group grid once again gave valuable insights to the work covered in week 8 and 9. I was responsible for the columns on predominant technology and theories/understanding of DE and found it quite interesting. Also noteworthy was the fact that technology that was not part of the third wave only a few years ago, has matured enough and is prevalent enough to now be considered part of the wave (Web 2.0, as per discussion with Lisa). I resolved the comments that Lisa made of wave 2 and edited the wave. I added input to the following columns in the grid: Systems/Ways of operating, teaching/learning theories and key authors. I also added and edited the references.
Theories. The theories of this wave were community of inquiry (CoI) and the equivalency theories. Also the connectivist pedagogy was discussed during these weeks. I made the connection between TD and CoI and highlighted the similarities of the two theories.
Convergence. As stated above this was the idea that made this wave all the more interesting to me.
References
Garrison, R. (2009). Implications of online learning for the conceptual development and practice of distance education. Journal of Distance Education, 23(2), 93-104. Retrieved from http://www.jofde.ca/index.php/jde/article/view/471/889
Peters, O. (2010). Distance education in transition: Developments and issues: Vol. 5 (5th ed.)[Adobe Digital edition]. Retrieved from Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg website: http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/
Shale, D. (2010). Beyond boundaries: The evolution of distance education. In M.F. Cleveland-Innes & D.R. Garrison (Eds.), An introduction to distance education: Understanding teaching and learning in a new era, (1st ed., pp.91-107). New York, N.Y.: Routledge.
Vaughan, N. D. (2010). Blended learning. In M.F. Cleveland-Innes & D.R. Garrison (Eds.), An introduction to distance education: Understanding teaching and learning in a new era, (1st ed., pp. 165-197). New York, N.Y.: Routledge.