Distance Education and Diversity

Perhaps the most emblematic of technology's applications to teaching and learning is distance education. The definition of distance education is simplicity itself. Distance education refers to use of technology to relax the constraints of time and space. Less constrained by time and space, people have opportunities to learn who otherwise might not. This entry describes recent incarnations of distance learning and then discusses how distance education can be connected to ideas of diversity and education.

Several monikers are used to describe distance education. Some more familiar names include distance learning, online education, virtual learning, cyber schools, and blended learning. Regardless of how it is tagged, distance education, in essence, is a collection of technical and social arrangements that allow learners to be connected to educational resources, human and/or technical, that are remote from them. An educational resource can be a person or group of people who are capable of communicating and sharing knowledge that is valued by a learner. Distance education also defines that set of applications through which learners are connected to distant tangible resources like remote instruments (e.g., telescopes), video libraries, and collections of course materials including objects like lecture notes and slides.

Many scholars have argued that society is on the cusp of a time when distance education will comprise a substantial portion of every learner's instructional experiences. Although this may become a pervasive reality, the online course—the [Page 662]most iconic distance education application—currently serves only a small fraction of high school students in the United States—around 700,000, mostly high school students in the pre-college sector who plan to attend college. In the postsecondary sector, online courses have been a fixture in many colleges and universities for more than a decade. Although some college students receive much of their college instruction online, virtual courses for most students are an episodic experience—likely one course or just a few online courses in the entire secondary or postsecondary experience. The experience is, in short, supplemental. While the footprint of distance education courses is small today, especially in the precollege ranks, there is evidence that it is growing. For example, the Florida Virtual School, which was established in 1997, now offers more than 100 courses. In 2011, it was the largest K–12 online learning platform in the United States. In Florida, students are now required to take at least one high school course online. Developments like these portend a rapid expansion of online courses in the precollege sector in the United States.

Pearl Harbor survivors Thomas linger and Robert Kinzler wait for another student to ask a question during their video teleconference with Washington Township High School in Sewell, New Jersey, on March 9, 2007. The two Pearl Harbor survivors of the attack December 7, 1941, are part of a group of survivors who are involved with the Witness to History program in Hawaii. The program provides U.S. and international students and educators with a unique and invaluable distance learning opportunity dedicated to the history of World War II.

Source: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Justin Nesbitt.

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