Distance Learning as a Discipline

As I did the readings for the first week, it struck me that there seemed to be much emphasis on understanding and explaining distance learning as its own discipline. Thinking about it this morning, I realized that the reason for this is due to not only defining the discipline so as to discover ways to develop it, but also because it is so new! Many of the articles cite research that has been done recently. Unlike Dewey's work or DeCarte's work, the dates associated with the current articles are dates that I can actually remember during my lifetime.

1986 was the year I graduated from high school. We still had manual and electric typewriters in the "typing" class. The only computers we had the year before were the two in the physics lab; the year I graduated, we had one of the first state-of-the-art computer labs in northwestern Wisconsin. It included a huge dot-matrix printer whose sound was muffled by the plastic shield that laid over the top during use. BASIC was being taught in the second semester course with LOGO in the first. These days the applications of computer technology don't include the programming aspect because the end user's needs have been defined differently and the capacity to serve those needs by programming has grown exponentially.

Now, we use technology to enhance student learning and make much of the processes in teaching and learning more efficient. It will be interesting to see what develops in the area of distance learning and the broader area of education.