Distance Education

Distance Education is becoming more and more prevalent in our society. Some of the benefits of distance education include that it allows students on nontraditional life paths to get their high school diploma. Distance education also lets students work at times that work best for them. Additionally, students can access their classrooms for anywhere in the world that has an internet connection. Also, teachers required to be certified, just like in any other public school. Probably the biggest benefit is that students get individualized curriculum.
Despite the many benefits of distance education, there are also many drawbacks. Students lose the positive social aspects of high school including sports and clubs. Also, there is limited face-to-face interaction between teachers and students. Students do not have as many external motivators, which may diminish student achievement. Distance education may foster unauthentic student interaction, and lastly,distance education has an extreme reliance on technology which may not always work.
For a teacher to become a distance education teacher they must have excellent communication skills in nontraditional avenues. Teachers must also be technology savvy to be able to use these different avenues of communication. Lastly, the teacher must have a state teaching certificate.
I think distance education will greatly impact my career starting in the next 2-3 years. One main way it will impact my career is that it is very possible that I will teach at least some of my classes as distance education classes. Another way that distance education can impact me is that I may do my professional development as distance education, so that I can get the credits I need while being able to work from home.
For distance education to work, there must be strong communication between teachers, parents, and students. There are many different ways that these three groups can interact including field trips, video conferencing, talking over the telephone, text messaging, instant messaging, and writing emails. Each of these methods are quick and direct, and excellent ways to facilitate conversation.