I just finished an older article by Garrison in which he argues that distance education has primarily followed an industrial approach thus far, but with the use of computer conferencing tools can transform to a post-industrial one.  According to Garrison, the dominant industrial model focuses on mass communication and mass production, with learners engaged in … Continue reading Garrison on Computer Conferencing

Note: I wrote this last month, but neglected to post it to this blog. We all want to know what it takes to excel.  Perhaps there is not a single domain that we passionately wish to dominate, but we admire excellence and are astounded by the feats of those great performers in history.  We wonder, … Continue reading Lit Review: Talent Is Overrated by Geoff Colvin

Today in Charles Graham's course we discussed Terry Anderson's article alongside two by Michael Moore.  Anderson combines theories of learning with the context of online education to suggest some outlines for a theory of online learning.  I was a little unsatisfied when I finished the article, perhaps because I wanted a full-blown theory, not just … Continue reading Anderson: Towards a Theory of Online Learning

For Dr. Graham's class this week, we read two articles by Michael Moore, one of the pioneers and leaders in the field of distance education, and currently the editor of the American Journal of Distance Education.  In one article, from 1989, Moore discusses three types of interaction in distance education: learner-content interaction (without which there … Continue reading Moore on Interaction & Transactional Distance

Note: I wrote this last month, but neglected to post it to my blog. We all love stories.  Bedtime stories, stories around the water cooler, aviation stories told by President Uchtdorf in General Conference.  Abraham Lincoln was loved by many (and scorned by not a few) because of his propensity to respond to any situation … Continue reading Lit Review: Tell Me A Story by Roger Schank

I just finished reading several chapters from Borje Holmberg on conversation theory and his empathy approach.  I was excited to read these to find out Holmberg's theory of conversation.  Ever since reading Andy Gibbons' chapter from his still unpublished work, Instruction and Learning, Technology and Design, I have been drawn to Gibbons' "definition of instruction: … Continue reading Holmberg’s Conversation Theory

With the opening of the new semester, I've begun teaching "Introduction to Middle Eastern Studies" at Brigham Young University.  This is a face-to-face course, but we are implementing some asynchronous elements, including a weekly discussion board using BrainHoney and the sharing of tweets about current events in the Middle East.  For the latter activity, students … Continue reading #mesa201 See What We’re Learning

I've been musing a bit over the articles I blogged on yesterday, and their call for greater theory development.  My first reaction is to agree: we need a stronger theoretical foundation to the field of distance learning. However, I'm also reminded of the proliferation of theories in the broader field of instructional design.  Some would … Continue reading Theory: Diversity vs Focus

For Dr. Charles Graham's class, we read three articles (listed below) that analyzed the trends in distance education research.  The earliest article (Anglin & Morrison, 2000) was published a decade before the latest (Davies, Howell, & Petrie, 2010), yet many of their conclusions were the same.  Again and again, these reviews of the published distance … Continue reading State of the Field

The first article we were asked to read for Dr. Graham's course was one called "Research Worth Publishing," an editorial by Michael Moore published in the American Journal of Distance Education in 2004.  Since the course culminates in a paper with detailed annotated bibliography, and thus much of our work will be putting together the … Continue reading Research Worth Publishing (Moore)