What an incredible ride this semester has been learning about the history of distance education (DE)! When you step back and think about it - how creative was it for Sir Isaac Pitman to launch one of the first examples of DE by sending postcards with text written in shorthand, and students were expected to decipher it and mail it back. Ingenious! And Anna Eliot Ticknor, known as the Mother of American correspondence study - you go girl!
The first wave gave way to the second wave in DE - and what a wave it was! The password was "Open" (no, not Open Sesame - Open University). The philosophy of being open to people, places, methods, ideas, adult learners (of both genders), places, methods, technologies, content, and all socioeconomic classes being welcomed to the learning table. This wave saw the birth of single-mode institutions and mega universities!
The third wave burst onto the beach with the advent of the internet - a true information bomb! Current trends show education moving from pedagogy to andragogy to heutagogy (and a bunch more gogy's!). The introduction of MOOCs - learning can belong to anyone just for the price of asking!
Speculations about DE in the future generally includes thoughts about newer, cooler technology, and that's probably true. What will the Web 3.0 look like? Will it be like falling down a rabbit hole into a virtual world? Will DE just become one more option on the menu, and not viewed as a rebel?
I'm not quite sure, but I'm grateful that I've garnered this understanding of DE, and I've securely buckled my seat belt for what comes next!
The first wave gave way to the second wave in DE - and what a wave it was! The password was "Open" (no, not Open Sesame - Open University). The philosophy of being open to people, places, methods, ideas, adult learners (of both genders), places, methods, technologies, content, and all socioeconomic classes being welcomed to the learning table. This wave saw the birth of single-mode institutions and mega universities!
The third wave burst onto the beach with the advent of the internet - a true information bomb! Current trends show education moving from pedagogy to andragogy to heutagogy (and a bunch more gogy's!). The introduction of MOOCs - learning can belong to anyone just for the price of asking!
Speculations about DE in the future generally includes thoughts about newer, cooler technology, and that's probably true. What will the Web 3.0 look like? Will it be like falling down a rabbit hole into a virtual world? Will DE just become one more option on the menu, and not viewed as a rebel?
I'm not quite sure, but I'm grateful that I've garnered this understanding of DE, and I've securely buckled my seat belt for what comes next!
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