<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">HI all,<div><br></div><div>Though it is older, anecdotal and autobiographical, here is something I wrote about "distanced" education in the journal Processed World. I still think it is relevant and so I'm sharing it here for my "two cents."</div><div><br></div><div>-Jesse Drew</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.processedworld.com/Issues/issue2001/pw2001_28-33_Distanced_Education.pdf">http://www.processedworld.com/Issues/issue2001/pw2001_28-33_Distanced_Education.pdf</a></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On Jun 10, 2010, at 7:59 AM, Andreas Schiffler wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">
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I guess there is more to a physical learning environment than just a
"perceived value": it is the real value of practical hands-on learning
and the subtleties of person-to-person communications that go with it -
the practical and sensorial learning which is hard to replicate in
distance learning or VR. I believe that these traits inherent in
physical learning environments are often treated as secondary when they
should be an area of primary investment.<br>
<br>
Such grandfathering may be due to a deliberate focus today on a
preparation for the "information processing age" or it may be a
financial or other resource constraints that limits the scalability of
physical learning spaces. I think "online" should not be treated as a
substitute but rather as an augmentation to supplement physical spaces
to extend their reach in time and space.<br>
<br>
--Andreas<br>
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On 6/9/10 1:18 PM, George Siemens wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:AANLkTino_Gu9u3eo8Xycy6jjeA5lMIR7tdBtvVUNQMcY@mail.gmail.com" type="cite">
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<div>Stian wrote: </div>
<div> </div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div>There are many ways to provide cross-border education and
training, and distance education is one, where the institution never
leaves its country, and the student stays at home. There are
interesting providers, for example the Indira Gandhi National Open
University in India, arguably the largest university in the world (more
than 2 million students) has study centres in 34 countries, often
countries in the Middle East and Africa with large Indian populations!<br>
<br>
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</div>
<div>Online learning makes sense for all kinds fo reasons: financial,
equity/access, scalability, etc. But...online (distance) learning is
still the unloved stepchild of education. Is the resistance cultural?
Or related to the perceived value of learning in physical spaces? </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>ICT has progressed enough over the last decade that I think we
can largely do away with the physical space of universities. Open
Universities have greatly impacted developing countries and the
intellectually curious in remote parts of the world (as is commonly
cited, Nelson Mandela studied via distance). If a government's goal,
and the spirit of a society, is to promote equity and broad access to
learning, the online learning should be an area of primary investment.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>George</div>
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_______________________________________________<br>iDC -- mailing list of the Institute for Distributed Creativity (<a href="http://distributedcreativity.org">distributedcreativity.org</a>)<br><a href="mailto:iDC@mailman.thing.net">iDC@mailman.thing.net</a><br>https://mailman.thing.net/mailman/listinfo/idc<br><br>List Archive:<br>http://mailman.thing.net/pipermail/idc/<br><br>iDC Photo Stream:<br>http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/idcnetwork/<br><br>RSS feed:<br>http://rss.gmane.org/gmane.culture.media.idc<br><br>iDC Chat on Facebook:<br>http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2457237647<br><br>Share relevant URLs on Del.icio.us by adding the tag iDCref</blockquote></div><br><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><div>Jesse Drew, Ph.D.</div><div>Director, Technocultural Studies</div><div>University of California at Davis</div><div>Art Building, Room 316</div><div>One Shields Avenue</div><div>Davis, CA 95616</div><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><div>530-752-9674</div><div><a href="mailto:jdrew@ucdavis.edu">jdrew@ucdavis.edu</a></div><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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