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Online Learning in Distance Education:

A Short Paper

Kathleen M. Stemmler

Northern Arizona University

 

February 15, 2003

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Abstract

 

This paper reviews several authors' perspectives on distance education as they relate to pertinent pedagogical, technological and social issues involved in delivering online courses and programs to an increasingly varied student population. The author examines these issues in relation to their perceived effects on administrators, faculty and technological support staff at Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff Arizona.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Online Learning in Distance Education: A Short Paper Introduction

Higher educational institutions are clearing paths through the dense forest of an evolving technology, to design and produce courses and degree programs for an increasingly diverse student population. These diversities include culture, age, and learning styles. It is certainly a time for experimenting with curriculum delivery, rethinking learning models and designing learning environments that will answer the needs of these students.

NAU for example, has been designated by the Arizona State Board of Regents to be the state's "distance learning university". It has as its mission the responsibility of providing courses, certifications and degree programs to students living in rural and urban areas who would otherwise be unable to earn a college degree.

 

As a result of this designation, NAU administrators, faculty and support personnel are exploring ways to deliver courses and degree programs that are accessible to these students and others living around the world. Distance Delivery Systems

NAU, in addition to other universities and colleges involved in distance learning, has in the past two decades used planes to send instructors as far away as Yuma and then phone lines to carry visual and audio signals to both urban and remote rural sites around the state. Currently, NAU has 20 interactive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Budget Considerations

Increasingly, educational administrators, faculty and students are asked to do more with less. The certain threat of additional cutbacks, healthy tuition increases and the appearance of numerous universities offering online degrees from around the world, is forcing a number of higher educational institutions, including NAU, to shift directions in their thinking about distance education and its delivery. Online courses and degree programs are here and they are considered to be cost effective. For many educational institutions, particularly those providing distance learning programs, this mode of course delivery is supposed to reduce some part time faculty and staff positions by having to rely course, and lack of a certain level of self-motivation. Students also express discouragement with course content. Duncan & Wallace (2002) and Norton (1992) agree that the solution to some of these problems lies with allowing teachers the time and support to drive the technology and the course in television sites (iitv) located in and around the state of Arizona. Unfortunately, due to State budget cuts, several of the iitv sites in some of the more remote areas of the state including Nogales, Peach Springs and Whiteriver have been closed and there is talk about closing one of two Yuma iitv sites as well. the same way they have been given the responsibility to manage and deliver traditional courses on campus.

Globalization

In addition to the above issues related to online courses, educators, anthropologists and traditional leaders are concerned that online courses through their very inception and design, encode the Western ideal of individualism (Bowers, Vasquez, & Roaf , 2000, p.182). The question arises, "How can educators  mitigate the effect of the computer as a tool or weapon                     

                                                                                                                                                               

            that is being used indirectly to threaten cultural diversity and spread globalization?" While Norton in her article (2003, p.38) lauds the advent of print as allowing information to be dispersed to the masses, Bowers et. al. (2002, p.186) see both print and materials available online as a "source of Euro American oppression of Native people". The reasoning behind this sense of oppression appears to be that online courses and information are contributing to the denigration and devaluation of the need

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                             to preserve and keep the oral tradition of education in a community alive. As one D'ine elder put it when being interviewed about the loss of land, cultural knowledge and traditional education, "There are many teachers, usually one's closest relatives-parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunts. Learning about the land is learning how to live... Now children and grandchildren are at school, usually far away from home" (Wood & Stemmler, 1981, p 9-10). The traditional learning patterns of many indigenous peoples have changed dramatically over the past century. There is a fear among indigenous cultures, and those fighting to preserve them, that online education will add to this ongoing destruction.

 

                            For example, Hopi traditional leaders and educators are still debating whether or not the publication of Hopi dictionaries and books is sacrilegious and affecting not only the well-being of the Hopi, but contributing negative affects to the well-being of the entire world. Entire religious societies have died out in the Hopi culture because there was no one knowledgeable left to pass down the oral cultural information. Many Native American cultures conceive of certain kinds of knowledge as sacred and prohibit its divulgence to others. For many traditional peoples in general, it is better that knowledge dies rather then have it fall into the wrong hands and minds. Educational technology may not be appropriate in these cases without consultation with traditional peoples.

 

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                                Minority Adult Education

    Other social and pedagogical concerns associated with online learning focus   on the need to educate the adult `minority" population. According to Wang, Lee, Chen, (1998, p.3), designing distance learning programs that educate the growing adult minority population will directly and positively impact the well-being of the entire "minority" population in the U.S. The authors present compelling data that demonstrate that this particular student population is highly motivated and eager to complete degree programs offered through distance learning.

       There are of course, existing barriers to successful degree completion. These are multifaceted and include not only technology access, and cost but also relevant curriculum and teaching methods appropriate to engage adult minority students (Wang, Lee, Chen, 1998, p.4).

 

Conclusion

Can educational technology fulfill all of the above concerns, requirements, obligations and promises and still evolve into a hassle-free technology? Priscilla Norton in her first of three articles entitled: "When Technology Meets the Subject-Matter Disciplines in Education" (Norton, 1992), excites the reader when she heralds the use of the computer as a mighty metaphor that has the ability to engage the teacher and student in authentic, problem­centered learning. The author is referring to K-12 use of educational technology in a classroom setting but teachers in higher education are applying the same concepts to their online courses. The possibilities together with the youth of educational technology require that educators continue the debate on pedagogical, social and technological issues in order to successfully reach out and assist a diverse student population to reach their educational goals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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References

Bohley, K. Kiggins, E. & Weimer, G. (2001). What Do the Students Think of On-Line Learners? Women in Higher Education, 10 (11), 2p.

Bowers, C.A., Vasquez, M. & Roaf, M. (2000). Native People and the Challenge of Computers: Reservation Schools, Individualism, and Consumerism. American Indian Quarterly, 24(2),182-199.

Duncan, J., & Wallace, M. (2002). Assessing online education: edutainment or desktop-rubbishing. Delta-Pi Epsilon Journal, v.44(1), 25-38.

Norton, Priscilla (1992). When Technology Meets the Subject-Matter: Disciplines in Education: Part One: Exploring the Computer as Metaphor. Educational Technology 32(6) 38-46.

Wang, D., Lee, R. & Chen, C. (1998). The Role of Distance Education and Major Factors That Influence Minority Adults' Participation in Educational Programs. ( National Center For Education Statistics). Milwaukee, WI: Institute on Race and Ethnicity.

 

Wood, J. & Stemmler, K. (1981). Land and Religion at Big Mountain: The Effects of the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute on Navajo Well-being. Flagstaff, Az.