Reflection

This is quite late due to our cancelled flight and delay out of state for four days.... As I was reading my peers blogs this week. Matthew mentioned this in his blog "Distance programs need to be flexible to change the technology to meet the needs of its students. In places where internet is not fast and robust, then another form of distance education needs to be used". I think this is spot on. From this week, we learned that there are many distance learning opportunities for students. We also learned that there is a lot of expectations for education in countries. I think to have a successful learning experience by distance, there does need to be more opportunities for students. Not every student can access a computer or have a good internet signal. The part that will be the most difficult is to figure out how we are going to give every single student a quality education. Not everyone has salaries that can afford a distance education program. I think it's important to find a way to give every student an opportunity for an education.

If you think about Alaska compared to the rest of the United States, we have a lot of land. I was just in Michigan and where it takes 8 hours driving to get from Anchorage to Fairbanks, or 6 hours to Valdez to Anchorage... in Michigan to get from Birmingham to Troy only takes 10 minutes, or Birmingham to Detroit takes 40 minutes. My point to this is students in Alaska don't have access to classes like other's due. In Michigan there were 3 Universities and many private schools. In Alaska there are three Universities and a few private schools. Mia mentions the divide, I think it's important to think of the students we are going to be teaching to when creating a distance education course. Do they have the materials to be successful? Can they afford the course requirements or have access to the tools needed to take the course? Also there needs to be certain topics that students can't access in a face to face setting. Students who live in a rural area are given an opportunity to succeed with distance learning. I think it's important to have many different kinds of education. Distance education is occurring all over the world, as we read this week. In some countries it gives women the right to an education. I think when designing a course, we need to have text materials available for students to access anytime (timezones) and study guides as well as tutorial/instructional videos. Distance education is the key to a successful learning environment around our world. It gives everyone access to an education.