Resources and Ideas for the Distance Educator
by
Roger Hiemstra
Technology,
e-learning, and education: Resources for educators - a resource for
technology integration -- http://www.adobe.com/devnet/education/articles/learning_resources.html
3d imaging and
distance learning –
Mobile devices and
technology -- http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Sep_05/article04.htm
Digital Natives –
Digital Immigrants – young people raised on the web, with mobile devices,
on video games, etc. and thought to have developed different cognitive; started
basically from Marc Prensky’s work -- http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/digitalnatives/index.htm
Reusable learning
objects (RLOs) – an intoduction to RLOs at http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/56/07879649/0787964956.pdf
Web 2.0 – sort of
a “modernizing” of the “original” Web that began to emerge with discussions and
observations of how the Web has been developing in the past five years -- http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html
AcademicInfo: Subject Guides & Online Degrees, is an good online education resource center with extensive subject guides and distance learning information
Mobile learning –
various efforts to learn or promote learning via a variety of handheld devices
such as iPods, Microsoft’s Zune, etc. – aimed at younger people mainly -- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2940936.stm
Information overload
and text interpretation – text interpretation tools are becoming available
but it remains a big challenge -- http://cslu.cse.ogi.edu/HLTsurvey/ch7node5.html
Instructional design
issues and resources for distance learning – the
Distance education
learner/teacher satisfaction and motivation – there is lots of research;
here is some of the best resources -- http://www.westga.edu/~distance/jmain11.html
Learning
effectiveness/assessment -- http://www.netnet.org/instructors/design/assessment.htm
and using learning contracts -- http://www-distance.syr.edu/tlchap8.html
Cost benefit analysis
- cost effectiveness issues and demonstrating the economic value of distance
learning investments have long been a topic of interest – here is a resource
that gives some guidance: http://www.hezel.com/strategies/spring2002/cost_effective.htm
Learning theory/research
and distance education – various resources exist that provide insight
specific research results, links, or guidelines: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl
; http://seamonkey.ed.asu.edu/~mcisaac/disted/final98/finallj.html
; and http://www.educationatlas.com/distance-learning-research.html
Distance education
teacher training and preparation – here is a source to initiate some
thinking on this topic: http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer42/bower42.html
Working with hard to
reach or learners on the margin through distance education – see the
resources suggested through the American Distance Education Consortium and a
companion National Science Foundation supported project: http://www.adec.edu/about.html and http://www.adec.edu/nsf/index.html
Participation,
retention, and student dropouts – important issues that concern distance
educators – here are some potential resources: http://www.ed.psu.edu/acsde/deos/deosnews/deosnews13_5.pdf
; http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/winter84/nash84.htm
; http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring71/mccracken71.html
; and http://kn.open.ac.uk/public/index.cfm?wpid=1886
Promoting critical
thinking skills and abilities – learner attributes desired by distance
education teachers – here are some related resources: http://www.trainingplace.com/loq/strategies.htm
; http://itdl.org/Journal/Jun_05/article02.htm
; http://www.usdla.org/html/journal/NOV02_Issue/article03.html
; and http://www.usdla.org/html/journal/MAY01_Issue/article02.html
Finding ways to
maintain learning integrity in distance education is a constant concern – delimiting student cheating, plagiarism,
and dishonesty are part of this concern – here are some resources that may
initiate some thinking on the topic: http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring51/heberling51.html
; http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer72/rowe72.html
; http://chronicle.com/colloquylive/2001/07/cheat/
; http://integrity.unc.edu/resources.html
; and http://www.ccsf.edu/Library/plag.html
How the Internet is changing self-directed learning; this relates to some research with which I was involved
elearnspace - last but not least, the work of
George Siemens about learning, networks, knowledge, technology, and community
is a must read
_______________________________
May, 2009
If you have some ideas, suggestions, questions, or related resource tips related to the topics shown above, or if you would just would like to converse with me, feel free to send an electronic message.