Putting the distance in distance education: An international experience in rural special education personnel preparation

Rural Special Education Quarterly, Winter 2003 by Kelly, Karen L, Schorger, John R

Computer-Mediated Learning

As course objectives and individual learner preferences tend to vary considerably in any educational endeavor, distance education instructors and their students must become competent with a variety of media and then use the technology and instructional strategies most appropriate to the situation (Vanttorn, 1998). In special education personnel preparation programs, the instructional focus is typically interactive and the curriculum content and design is dynamic, according to the identified needs and competencies of the participants, and relevant to ever-changing laws and policies. According to Johansen (as cited in Bostrum, Watson, & Kinney, 1992), computermediated learning can be both dynamic and interactive and is most often characterized by several modes of interaction with respect to time and place. Synchronous interaction (real time communication), or interactions that occur at the same time but not necessarily in the same place, include formats such as the increasingly popular live "chat," shared whiteboard space, video images, live pictures of participants, prerecorded video, audio, file transfer, and application sharing. Asynchronous interaction (delayed interaction) refers to instructional formats in which only one person communicates at a time and instruction occurs at different times and places for instructors and students alike. The two rarely meet face to face. Examples include e-mail, bulletin boards, and computer conferencing. Content transmission and communication support occur in the context of an asynchronous learning network (ALN) and correspond to the notion of an electronic or virtual classroom. Asynchronous distance learning activities tend to allow for more reflective and constructive thinking than synchronous activities as live formats do not typically support welldeveloped and thought out responses (Jonassen, 2000). Over the course of the ACCESS program, students were required to become competent in a range of technology-mediated learning formats.

International Instructional Setting and Project Considerations

The instructional setting for the project described in this paper was on the island of Cyprus. As the third largest island in the Mediterranean, Cyprus is situated in the upper right hand corner of the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and has been a self-governed country since 1960 when it earned independence from England. Presently, Cyprus is a politically, culturally, and geographically divided island following the Turkish occupation of 1974. For the past several decades, the United States government and NATO forces have consistently committed resources and support to facilitate peace and resolve cultural and religious conflicts that have plagued the island for centuries. During this project, course design, development and delivery of the two ACCESS internet courses took place in the divided capital city of Nicosia among the Greek Cypriot community, approximately 7000 miles from the participating students in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.