Week 6: Assessing Collaborative Learning

Participation in a collaborative learning environment should be assessed by the actual students in the learning environment, the online communities, and the contributions students make to the learning environment.  The varying levels of skill and knowledge students bring affects the instructor’s “fair and equitable assessment” because now they have to look at ways to assess without comparing one student to another.  If a student does not want to network or collaborate in a learning community, the other members of the course should notify the instructor of this matter.  The instructor should always act as a facilitator in online courses.  This would have a positive impact because they are consistently involved in the learning process and discussion throughout the assignments.  http://collaborativelearningonline.edublogs.org/

Elements of Distance Education Diffusion

Global diversity has evolved in the field of distance education.  It has evolved in the fact that persons can now have collaborative online discussions in an asynchronous or synchronous environment with persons around the world.  These person involved in the discussion also can include experts in their fields.  Before collaboration was made possible, persons did not have access to experts like this.  I find it to be an exciting experience that I am collaborating with people from around the country.  This type of global diversity I'm experiencing could not take place without certain tools.  There are many tools that are available for globally diverse interactions.  There are the web 2.0 tools that allow for reading and publishing to the web such as blogs and wikis.  A person can also find different discussion forums on specific topics that are asynchronous or synchronous.  Will Richardson was actually having a discussion with a colleague in his blog on the importance of discussion forums on issues.  Gary Stager also calls himself a "blogging machine" when it comes to important issues on education.  I believe that these two men are taking very strong points and showing that collaborating with others through distance learning can really enrich your experiences.

The Next Generation of Distance Education

After reading articles by Moller, Huett, Foshay and Coleman, and listening to the Simonson video programs, I feel there is a need for distance education to evolve.  Moller et al. (2008) seem to think that it was due to a lack of experience in theoretical and design principle to why distance education has not taken off as it should in the fields of training, higher education, and K-12 edcaution.  They felt as though all three of the fields need trained professionals that are knowledgeable about constructivist theory and principles of distance learning in order for the field to evolve.  Simonson felt that in order for the field to evolve teachers of distance education need to get away from "identical" teaching and practice using the equivalency theory which states "different but equal" learning.  I agree with everyone's position.  Usually, a lack of knowledge is always a hindrance to the improvement of anything.  Distance education is such a new concept that people are afraid to get on board and learn about it, but they should not.
 
I have experience dealing with this kind of a situation now.  Our district is trying to get teachers trained in using more Web 2.0 tools, and they are being met with resistance.  I have had fellow colleagues, that have been mostly veteran teachers, make comments as "I'm not used to teaching that way" or "This is too time consuming."  But as on of the posts in  George Siemen's blog points out, the change towards distance education is coming.

Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W. & Coleman, C. (2008, September/October). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 3: K12). TechTrends, 52(5), 63–67.

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008, May/June). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 1: Training and Development). TechTrends, 52(3), 70–75.

Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Huett, J. (2008, July/August). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 2: Higher Education). TechTrends, 52(4), 66–70.


Simonson, M. (Presenter). (2008). Distance education: the next generation. [Vodcast]. Laureate Education, Inc.

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