ED 722 - Week 1 Reflection and Storify Part II

After reading the article by Farhad Saba on Distance Learning: Distance Education in the US - Past, Present, Future, I began reflecting on what my thoughts were with distance learning and how it could and should be implemented into the K-12 public education arena.  I sort of jumped the gun on my first Storify, because I was very excited that our city's new mayor wants to increase the computer literacy of our students.  In my opinion, I think the article written by Farhad Saba brings up points that could be used in the discussion with educating students on digital literacy and STEM.

I created another Storify about distance learning in the K-12 public education setting.  Distance Learning for K-12 Public Education  I wanted to look at where distance learning is used in the public school setting today and read about findings from studies on the advantages and disadvantages of distance learning.  Storify helped me put together articles that could be used to further the discussion of distance learning in public school education.

In addition, I think it would be beneficial to look at implementing distance learning with the traditional classroom setting.  Flipped classrooms are becoming popular in many schools.  When thinking about my school in particular though, a flipped classroom or distance learning might be difficult due to the lack of resources that students have outside of school.  That is where community resources such as libraries and after school programs could be used to assist with the lack of resources.

If our jobs as educators is to prepare our students for their futures, then we must be preparing them for everything that they will see in their future and that means distance learning.  Whether they will be taking college courses through distance learning or have a career where distance learning is used for training, prior knowledge of it will not only benefit them but also their future employers.

Farhad Saba brought up some very good points on the reluctance of some settings to use distance learning.  I often wonder if public education systems and unions are nervous if more distance learning is put into place would that mean less jobs would be available?  I believe though that the more important question we should be asking ourselves is whether or not distance learning will prepare our students for the future.  From what I have read so far, it seems as if it would be beneficial to help our students succeed.