The role of the instructor debate

This week in class we are having a discussion on the role of the instructor in face to face courses vs. distance education. I really feel the role in itself does not change that much since the ultimate role is to teach the students. What I do see is how we as instructors implement that role.

Teaching face to face give you instant feedback from the students and it forms an immediate line of communication open both ways. With Distance education that line of communication is different since it is more of a online conversation without human feel (with asynchronous courses) but this does not mean we can't engage the student to see if they have actually grasped the concept.

Finally, I think it is important that both F2F instructors and DE instructors know what the pros and cons are in each type of learning environment, but I feel it is important for each type of instructor to specialize in either F2F or DE in order to provide a better product and learning experience for the students. What are your thoughts?

Module 4 is here.....

Well I have made it to module four for this class. So far I have mixed emotions, not sure this is what I was expecting. In one hand it has been a great review of instructional design terms and distance education terms, but in the other I feel the "technology" part was not quite I expected.

We have read about all types of technologies used in the past and present, but as far as application of them (other than actually being enrolled in an asynchronous class) we have only touched upon wikis and blogs. Both wikis and blogs are good pieces of technology, but I guess I was expecting more advanced items such as Captivate and Articulate.

The next few weeks should be interesting, I will be attending the national fire academy for a week long course called "21st Century Training for Fire and EMS Training Officers "...do we see a pattern here yet? I guess I am glutton for punishment.

Good News all around!

DISCLAIMER: This post has nothing to do with safety or instructional design.

That being said, my wife and I just found out we are having another baby. Interestingly enough, the last time we were pregnant I was finishing up my masters degree. Apparently going to school is a good fertility treatment since I am now working on a post grad diploma.

I shared the news with family, friends and coworkers and came back to my office today to find this...

I must say I have the BEST coworkers!!

Discussing the Pros and Cons of distance education

The following blog will bring some of the pros and cons of different distance education technologies and how we can use these to provide a better learning experience to our students.