Siemens (2008) called the acceptance of distance education by business, academia, and government and their combined “interaction to provide and to equip students for this online environment” the triple-helix model of education. I think that academia was a little slower in acceptance of distance education than either business or government had been. I recall using conference calls in the 70s to train employees who were off-site of the company headquarters, who could not get into the office for whatever reason, and having it considered an alternative to the inconvenience of traveling to the office.
Now, however, distance education seems to be boldly seeping into the academic world, albeit slowly, but will, at some point, be considered the alternative to face-to-face education, without the stigma of being considered “less,” providing less of a quality education, less prestigious on the resume, or less of a benefit to the learner population. Learners will become more comfortable with the online learning environment (Siemens, 2008) and as a result will force acceptance as they request more courses be taken online.
I agree with each of the views Siemens (2008) espoused about global diversity, communication, and collaborative interaction. In focusing on one of these elements, at present, communications is increasing to the point where it may be interfering with everyday life. There are so many opportunities for individuals to communicate with each other -- texting, skyping, twittering, blogging, emailing, faxing -- that it seems almost strange to communicate solely by making phone calls. For someone to claim that they could not get in touch with someone else, with the myriad of options available, seems an impossibilty. And this is only the tip of the iceberg of communications. Someone out there is conceiving of another form of communications that will be achieved and we will wonder what life was like before it existed.
Reference
Siemens, G. (2008). The future of distance education. [Vodcast]. Baltimore MD: Laureate Education, Inc.
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Clarice,
ReplyDeleteYours is an interesting post. You discussed that academia as slower to adopt the triple helix model as compared to business and government. I wonder why but even more I wonder if this is a typical trend. I feel it likely is since so many of our technological innovations come from the military (government) followed by production and marketing of these technologies by business.It makes sense to me that education would trail these groups.
Sandy