The area that I think Distance Education (D.E.) has made the greatest impact is global diversity. I am amazed at the speed in which news and information can now travel. When I went on my first Navy deployment in 1982 it took as long as 6 weeks to get news from home. I had an aunt pass away and I finally found out a month later when my father sent me a telegram! The only way to communicate with him was using the ship's radio and talking to a Ham radio operator who linked the call (only after my father agreed to accept a collect call)! Now we email and use cell phones practically anywhere in the world.
The world has gotten smaller, and I for one think it's a good thing. We are all in this together and D.E. is one way we can hopefully start to accept ourselves as ONE race: Human. The tools that help us conduct D.E. globally and specifically are: the World Wide Web; smaller, more advanced electronic devices; collaborating sites; and, institutions like colleges that not only encourage online collaborating, but insist on it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Stephen,
ReplyDeleteYour comments are so true. My son has been playeing International basketball for the past three years and using the technology that is available today keeps us appreciating the drive and determination that others sacrificed to bring such technological tools for us to use in today society.
MR
Hi Stephen, The statement, "We are all in this together and D.E. is one way we can hopefully start to accept ourselves as ONE race: Human" was very philosophical. I remember just five years ago. I really didn't know how far technology had came until enrolling in Walden. Do you think we'll start teaching our children other languages earlier or will there just be one ubiversal language one day? Deb :)
ReplyDeleteDeb, I think learning other languages would be the first step, but one language would be the ideal situation. Even though I'm sure we think it should be English, I for one would not advocate for that because it's too hard to learn and there are so many exceptions to the rule (i before e except after c, unless your name is Einstein!).
ReplyDelete