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Global diversity, communication and collaborative interaction are key elements which are uniquely individualized from F2F classes, ultimately enhancing the learning experience (George Siemens, 2009). Although all three elements bring a vast amount of value to the learning community and have evolved substantially, I tend to feel that collaborative interaction has surpassed the others. According to Siemens (2009), the growing acceptance of distance education is largely due to “more of us having experiences communicating online”.
As I reflect back over the last 30 years that I’ve been in the IT industry, I recall the first personal computer I supported as a field engineer for Digital Equipment Corporation. It was a “Rainbow 100”. The Rainbow came in three models, the 100A, 100B and 100+. Fully loaded and shipped to the customer it had about 128K of memory and 64K CPU. Oh yea, it had a floppy disk which held about 120 mega bytes of data! For those of you who never heard of a floppy disk, it’s kind of like a USB flash drive with a lot less storage capacity. Although its name said personal computer, very few individuals could afford to have one in their home, they were most often sold to educational institutions and businesses. Within University labs, I would watch the computer science student’s logon to these stand-alone systems to churn out assignments. During that time (late 70’s and early 80’s) most collaboration in terms of computer systems took place among those who were of an elite group referred to as highly technical or power users. The communication was pretty much limited to local area networks (LANs)for those types of institutions. Collaboration and collaboration tools were few. Today the internet and intranets are accessible to almost everyone and its a thousand plus times cheaper to own computers or other smart devices. Due to the evolution of innovative computer technologies it’s considerably easier to reach those you love via high-speed internet with a variety of collaborative tools.
Low cost along with accessibility to computer systems, user friendly applications and the internet has boosted the confidence levels of the technically savvy and those novices in terms of getting online and communicating with family, friends or co-workers.
Do I feel that collaboration interaction is being adopted and continues to evolve? Yes, past adoptions of new technology for education have signaled a confidence in its potential to alleviate a particular problem or to make a job easier or more efficient (Carr.V, 2010). Through increased usage of user friendly applications which support collaboration, people have gained a sense of comfort and even discovery that meaningful relationships can develop using online medium (Siemens, 2009). According to Rogers (1995) “Innovation Decision Process theory”, potential adopters of a technology progress over time through five stages in the diffusion process. First, they must learn about the innovation (knowledge); second, they must be persuaded of the value of the innovation (persuasion); they then must decide to adopt it (decision); the innovation must then be implemented (implementation); and finally, the decision must be reaffirmed or rejected (confirmation). The focus is on the user or adopter. It is clear that not only has collaboration interaction evolved, but it is globally adopted due to the progressive evolution of innovative technologies!
Reference
Carr.V. H. ( 2010). Technology Adoption and Diffusion. Retrieved on June 30th, 2010 from http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/innovation/adoptiondiffusion.htm
Charvaughn. (2009). Elements of Distance Education Diffusion. Retrieved on June 30th, 2010 from http://charvaughn.blogspot.com/
Hanley, M. (2009). Factors Influencing Learning Design: Discovering Instructional Design. Retrieved on June 30th, 2010 http://eduspaces.net/mhanley/weblog/700114.html
Rogers, E.M. (1995). Diffusion of innovations (4th ed.). New York: The Free Press.
Seimens, George. (2010). The Future of distance Education. Video posted to http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4199700&Survey=1&47=3797374&ClientNodeID=984645&coursenav=1&bhcp=1
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Sonya,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the accessiability to collaboration tools has grown over the years. Many who would fear away for new technology are embracing the collaboration tools. I believe the reason that is so is because collaboration tools are user friendly and the design is for everyone from young to elderly.
Sondra I whole-heartedly agree! We fear the unknown, we feared e-relationships and communication. With the invent of social networking and business relationships that rely heavily on ecommunication, it's no wonder that elearning has become more widely accepted. I began a PhD program at a local university it 2004. I drove through rush-hour traffic and gave up two nights a week with my young family to listen to outdated lectures and feel uninspired and unempowered. I thought there had to be more options. I could not stay in that school, regardless of prestige. I was terrified to take the online leap, but was pleasantly surprised that from 2002-2007 online degrees were becoming less taboo and more widely accepted. I'm grateful for this opportunity.
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