Learning Anytime, Anywhere: Advanced Distributed Learning and the Changing Face of Education

Learning Anytime, Anywhere: Advanced Distributed Learning and the Changing Face of Education
by J. D. Fletcher, Sigmund Tobias and Robert A. Wisher

Another article that offers excellent opportunities for personal and professional reflections was reviewed this week. The implications of the research identified in the article are encased in the current movement to transition our classroom instructional strategies to a 21^st century context. The constructivist approach to instruction surfaces again with this article. Educational research is diving into what the government and industry repositories that have been used to educate and train their workforce. Again research is asking educators to critically analyze the research, its implications for instruction and most importantly, its implications for the student we are preparing for future. Critically thinking teachers who believe in their personal effectiveness are better able to create critical thinking students who can be 21^st century problem solvers.

Envision a child receiving an education that promotes learning anytime and anywhere and be diverse, tailored, to meet their individual needs. The harmony between home, school, and the rapidly changing work place would provide each and every student with the tools to tackle the challenges that are now in place due to physical or economic reasons, become successful and productive members of an ever changing society. The authors as researchers have confronted the specifications of technology integration, the issues facing education and educational research, the need for technology to be shared. They also wrestled with the affordability and cost effectiveness of their viewpoints. Fletcher, Tobias and Wisher addressed the value between distance learning and distributed learning. They visualized the disadvantages and advantages of online learning. One of the disadvantages of on-line learning addressed was the quality of the instructional process. Whereas Sitzmann, Kraiger, Stewart, and Wisher argue that Web-based instruction is more effective than classroom instruction. There are many kinks for the ADL theorists need to address and concentrate on: one being the physical presence of the instructor monitoring the learning that is taking place. Baggaley, Spencer and McCabe validate my concerns. Viewing my students in the classroom, especially the academically challenged, I experience poor work ethics, rampant plagiarism, and deceitful behavior. Granted they are not using the suggested hand-held devices or have had the advantage of the Wisc-Online program, but they are given all the opportunities and resources in our school to be successful, yet they choose the easy way out.

As usual theorists love to dream and in a perfect world ADL would be the panacea, universal remedy, for all. The traditional classroom, distance and distributive should and could complement one another. Teachable moments in the classroom could be continued to the distributive and distance learning. Engaging, or sparking an interest in classroom environment would let the student continue to learn anywhere and anytime once leaving the traditional setting. Whether the topic be granular or massive edification, teachers evolving role from directed instruction to the constructivist’s role of the facilitator in project based instruction is ever changing. A curriculum based on ADL is a vision of utopia in the educational schema, but let’s be realistic. Academia dreamers keep dreaming, I invite you to work in the real world of education and see how your bubbles will burst.