Distance Education


This week is all about Distance Education. Have you taken a distance class? Personally, I have not yet. A couple of times I thought about taking a distance class when I needed an extra credit and wasn’t really interested in what is available. Chris Fredrickson and Shannon Magee gave our Tech class a small presentation about all the distance education classes available in Manitoba. I was surprised at the variety that is offered in the province. From division driven online classes, teleconferencing classes, and even completely online collegiates.


I like the idea of distance ed classes because they are easily accessible for everyone and they have the ability provide many diverse classes rural schools aren’t always able to provide due to lack of number and funds. It can also be helpful where students are being home schooled or are unable to be in school. And for teacher’s distance course can be used as a great resource, especially, when you are thrown into a situation where you may not be an expert in. The course can provide materials for you to spring board off. Personally, I think could really come in handy especially as a first-year teacher.

However, a challenge with most distance ed courses is that they are only designed for two types of learners, audio and visual learners. I think this is a big challenge. I am a kinesthetic learner, so hands on projects and experiments really help me to understand the material. But who knows, there may be a solution to this already too.

A couple of programs introduced to us:
What are your thoughts about distance ed classes and resources?

Until next time,


Comments

  1. JLHartFebruary 24, 2019 at 9:33 PM

    Hello great post. I have never considered that the type of learners that would not benefit from these type of programs. I would say that there are great benefits to these types of programs but there are challenges also. In my own experience with having taken distance learning I found the programs useful but there were technical problems. I would find that the sound or joining in class conversations through video conferencing classes were lagging few seconds with the connection. However, despite this I found learning through distance education beneficial based on the location of my home reserve. Thanks for the great post and reflection of the presentation.

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