Convergence of Technology and Diversity: Experiences of Two Beginning Teachers in Web-Based Distance Learning for Global/Multicultural Education

Teacher Education Quarterly, Winter 2006 by Gaudelli, William

Distance Learning

Distance learning, though significantly altered in the technology rich era of the late 20th Century, is not new. Prewitt (1998) traces the current trend in Web-based distance learning to its antecedents, particularly the development of skill-oriented distance learning courses. Farmers were given access to distance learning courses via mail through the Universities of Chicago, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin as early as 1890 (Prewitt; Stevenson, 2000). Great Britain, whose educational system was widely exported throughout the world via their empirical control, has a substantial history of distance learning. In Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, for example, Britain mandated and oversaw a colonial system of education with far-reaching historical implications and extensive oversight mechanisms. This centralized and global system encouraged the growth of distance learning, particularly after televisions were available in the 1950s. Australia, after its establishment as a sovereign nation, continued to use distance learning employing shortwave radio as a mode of instruction to serve distant, rural communities (Stevenson, 2000). In the 1970s, Latin American countries engaged a similar effort to educate isolated, rural populations through educational television, or ETV. Though distance learning has existed for ver a century, computer technology has given rise to increased attention and resources over the past two decades. The U.S. Department of Education (1999) defines these efforts as "education or training courses delivered to remote (off campus) locations via audio, video (live or pre-recorded), or computer technologies including both synchronous and a-synchronous instruction."

While distance learning courses that rely on traditional forms of technology such as television and radio remain, distance learning has been widely retooled to use technologies such as the Web, instant messaging, and course platforms such as Blackboard and WebCT. With the incorporation of these new technologies in distance learning come a need to consider the attributes and problems associated with the tools. Prewitt ( 1998) suggests that the common problem in earlier distance education efforts was related to the repackaging of existing teaching that failed to accommodate pedagogy to the particularities of television, radio, ormail (p. 188). He argues that Webbased distance learning advocates should identify the unique learning potential of instant messaging, for example, rather than simply redacting new tools into existing processes. Hartman (2002) similarly contends that distance learning requires new pedagogical tools and alternative teaching strategies in order to be effective.

The value of substituting media or tools of instruction to improve learning, however, has been called into question by a wide-body of research analyzed by Clark (1983). He urges caution about attributing learning differences to the media itself, as his meta-analysis demonstrates that five decades of comparing the educational effects of different media indicate "no significant difference" and sees this line of research as a scholarly dead-end (p. 450). He suggests that when differences in learning outcomes are present, they are attributable to choices made by the teacher (to tape record a lecture for future review), rather than the media itself (tape recorder). Such claims warrant consideration of how teachers can judiciously employ diverse media, rather than the inherent value of educational technology as causally producing learning.