Welcome to my website.
Hello, and welcome. Feel free to browse this website if you are interested
in reading about distance education (DE) or distance learning. You'll discover some DE basics, some theories
and viewpoints, and some links related to what is going on in the field today. This website also provides a
look into my work as a practitioner of distance education.
- Charlotte
What is distance education?
Distance education seems to be known by many names - distance learning, e-learning, online learning, WBT
(web-based-training), etc. If we consider a definition to address all these terms, then distance education can
be simply defined as learning that occurs when the instructor and the learner are separated by time and/or space.
Most often, distance education is supported by various technologies, including the Internet.
But, if we stop there, we may overlook some important aspects and benefits of distance learning, which is all around
us. In fact, I was doing distance learning in the early eighties, long before I heard this term. We were kicking off a new
set of banking products and did video-taped interviews to share the vision with workers around the state. We distributed self-paced
written workbooks nationwide, that were required to be completed before companies sent their employees for face-to-face classrooom
training on the software. We even taught a class where we had an instructor call to a Florida classroom (telephone speaker)
from Idaho; she explained a mortage payment concept, as we advanced the slides locally. These are very practical examples
of distance learning in the workplace.
So, I would say that distance learning and distance education cover a wide spectrum of learning, where there
is an intent to learn, although the traditional classroom may be supplemented or not used at all, as learners and teachers
optimize simple and complex technologies to interact in the following ways: teacher-learner, learner-learner, and learner
content.
If we think about it broadly, we'll realize almost all of us have done distance learning. Just what do you think
homework was?
A few of my philosophies about distance education
Distance education, online learning, e-learning, and distance learning are often spoken of as exactly the same thing.
For our purposes, we'll follow that trend and address DE from a broad view.
Distance education can be cost-effective and time-efficient because the learner can stay in his/her "place," not incurring
the cost and inconvenience of traveling to the classroom. Whether the classroom is a few blocks away or around the world,
the convenience of remaining in the learners' home or office is probably the most tremendous benefit. Being able to learn
based on individual schedules is also one major reason so many are drawn to DE.
However, one of the most exciting aspects of distance education is that it helps us learn in new ways and provides opportunities
unavailable before. For example, learners learn more from each other and from the content than in a classroom. And, as learners,
our classmates are often from other countries - the perspectives and rich experiences they share are seldom available in one
traditional classroom.
If we really understand how adults learn, we are already well on the way to being successful in creating, delivering,
and sustaining successful learning at a distance. What happens in this digital and knowledge age is that we slowly -
or, for some, quickly - become willing to trade the familiar and social aspects of the classroom for the tremendous
convenience distance learning brings. It takes time to realize the opportunities associated with that tradeoff. And, whoever
said classroom learning all the time for every purpose is perfect for everyone?
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