The Next Generation of Distance Education Unconstrained Learning
The world of education is being radically altered driven by ever-emerging and innovative technologies, openness, and unprecedented access to knowledge. Older correspondence-style methods of instructional delivery are passé and “classroom adapted to t
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Leslie Moller
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Jason B. Huett
Editors
The Next Generation of Distance Education Unconstrained Learning
Editors Leslie Moller Professor, Educational Tech. Walden University Minneapolis, MN 55401, USA [email protected]
Jason B. Huett Assoc. Dean, Online Develop. and USG eCore University of West Georgia Carrollton, GA 30118, USA [email protected]
ISBN 978-1-4614-1784-2 e-ISBN 978-1-4614-1785-9 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-1785-9 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2012930052 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Introduction
Soon we’ll be shipbuilding … – Elvis Costello
That sound you hear is the dam cracking… Our learning landscape is being fundamentally altered. After decades of living behind a dam protecting us from the wave of educational and technological change crashing against our walls, the dam is about to give way. If you listen carefully, you can hear this barrier, originally constructed by deep-rooted educational, political, and social systems, groaning under the strain. Why now? The short answer is that Web-based technologies are revolutionizing learning and reshaping the educational process. After all, who could have anticipated 100, 50, or even 25 years ago that a learner, sitting in front of a device no bigger than a stack of books, would be able to access practically limitless knowledge to create a personalized learning environment that literally knows no bounds? Now, we find modern learners being continually connected to new and ever-evolving content that addresses their personal learning needs in ways unimagined just a few years ago. Without question, unprecedented access to information, new technologies, and a new sense of openness and collaboration are changing education and the world at large. There is also a raw sense of empowerment in the learning process that is flowing worldwide. This newfound autonomy is equalizing the educational playing field between social classes and between countries and is placing control of the learning process in the hands of the individual—where many argue it rightly belongs. However, there appears to be a disconnect between what we know is happening in the real world and what we do in our classro
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