The ever-changing world of technology has made
distance education take a new dimension. Most educational institutions are
adopting distance education to reach out to society at large. George Siemens is
of the opinion that there are three elements that are critical in distance
education to create effective learning experiences. The three elements are
global diversity, communication, and collaborative interaction (Laureate,
2008c). These elements are encompassing as distance learning environment cannot
achieve set outcomes on using just one of the elements. In this purview, the
focus here is on global diversity. The evolution of global diversity is as a
result of no time zones, distant and locales accessibility to learning materials,
and meeting the needs of all learners inclusive of those with challenges. The
ability of both learners and instructors to interact and communicate in
distance education has made the world a global village, not taking cognizance
of whether developing or developed countries, culture, and ethics among others.
Ellsworth buttressing Siemen’s view stated, "it is the global diversity
element that actually makes distance education different and unique from
face-to-face (F2F) education."
The primary medium is the use of Internet. Access to
internet connection anytime, anywhere has made many online tools useful in
distance education. The online tools that facilitate interactions among
learners include Skype, social networking sites, blogs, wikis, discussion
forum, and google docs for collaboration. The use of Skype has made online
meeting, discussion, instant messaging and video-conferencing easy. It has a
level of F2F, as learners can see one another in a physical posture during the
video conferencing. The use of these technologies has provided cross-cultural
international dialogues. This has enriched lives and futures with exposure to
global diversity while learning alongside the world.
I share Siemen’s view that the growing acceptance of
distance education has the key elements, comprising global diversity,
communication and collaborative interaction. These elements are successfully
incorporated into Walden University delivery method of distance education. In
one of my courses, a classmate asked for the location of Nigeria in the world.
If our paths had not crossed in this program, my classmate might not in her
lifetime heard of such country, talk-less of collaborating with learners from
that part of the world. Global diversity is a pivotal element of distance
education.
References
Ellsworth, E. (2010). Elements of Distance
Education. Retrieved on June 25, 2012 from http://ericaeduc8842.blogspot.com/2010/12/module-two-blog.html
Laureate
Education, Inc. (2008c). The future of distance education. Principles of
Distance Education. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Reshef, S. (2010). University of the people.
Retrieved on June 25, 2012 from http://universityofthepeople.wordpress.com/
