Technologies and Media for Distance Education ITEC 106 EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN UNIVERSITY Faculty of Education Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology Teacher Education

A Model of Communication Communication occurs when two or more individuals wish to share ideas. Communication in a distance education environment happens when learners interact with one another and with instructor.

A Model of Communication...

A Model of Communication... Needs? Sender Encoding/Decoding Channel Receiver Noise

Technologies and Media Print medium Audio-and Videocassettes Radio and Television Teleconferencing - Audioconferencing - Videoconferencing - Computer Conferencing Computer-Based Instruction Web-Based Conferencing Web-Based Instruction

Print medium Print is the most common medium used in distance education. Forms of print are: - textbooks, - manuals, - course notes, and study guides. Easy to: - Press - Distribute - Reproduce - Easy to use (know how to use)

Print medium... Most important print medium are study guides: - Creates context... Print materials are relatively inexpensive to develop or distribute (Moore, p78). Print is used in some form by almost all distance education courses, regardless of what other media they employ.

Audio-and Videocassettes Audio and videocassettes materials is generally expensive and involves specialized skills (recording, editing, directing). Popular at 70s and 80s. - In 90s CD/DVD Problem: Creativeness and Professional experience. - Need money and time..

Audio-and Videocassettes... Some distance learning provide what's called "video-based instruction". In such program, video tapes are the main medium of delivery of information to the learner.

Radio and Television Radio and television broadcasting has been used for educational purposes for many years (Moore, 85). There are different types of broadcast: public, cable, and satellite. Some of the advantages of radio and television broadcasting is that they Audio-and videotapes have come to play an increasingly important role as media for distance education.

Radio and Television... These technologies are convenient and cost-effective. Most people have VCRs in their homes, and videotapes are easy and inexpensive to distribute. These media can be used to present the views of experts, which would increase the credibility of and interest in the materials. Materials that cannot be communicated by print could be communicated this way. Video is a powerful medium in terms of capturing attention, and conveying a lot of information quickly.

Radio and Television... Producing audio-or videotape helps keeping students in track, and get people in the community involved, and may recruit new learners to the institute. Broadcast may be provided to learners through cable television network or satellite broadcast. Those channels can provide good quality broadcast and dedicated channels for educational purposes.

Teleconferencing Moore and Kearsley define teleconferencing in terms of describing "the interaction of students and instructors via some form of telecommunications technology. There are four different types of teleconferencing: audio, - audio graphics, video, and computer." For teleconferencing; - Need telephone lines

Teleconferencing vs.Audioconferencing Audio conferencing is most common and least expensive form of teleconferencing. Audio graphic teleconferencing systems involve the use of computer or facsimile technology to transmit visuals to support the audio. Some computer systems allow the transmission of graphics, programs, and data, where each site sees anything on the instructor computer screen, besides hearing the audio.

Teleconferencing... Audio graphic systems are good for classes that involve a lot of illustration, such as equations, or computer applications. Videoconferencing can be transmitted via satellite, cable, or standard telephone lines. It requires compressing the videos and several equipment.

Videoconferencing Video conferencing allows learners and instructors to interact face-to-face. The site below is a site for a class that is being taught by videoconferencing. The site answers questions about videoconferencing technology, why, when, and how to use it.

Computer Conferencing Computer Conferencing allows students and instructors to interact via a computer network. This interaction can be through e-mail messages, file transfer, chat rooms, real audio and video, and others. With the fast progress in computer technology, computer conferencing is taking its place in educational technology. Computer conferencing provides good quality, easy to use, and cost-efficient way of interaction.

Computer-Based Instruction According to Moore, Computer-Based Instruction (CBI) refers to instructional programs that the student uses alone on a personal computer. The program is usually provided on CD-ROM, in multimedia format (graphics, text, sound, and video). Even though CD-ROM-based instruction provides effective presentations and cost-effective medium, it is not commonly used in distance education programs, since it does not provide dynamic content and needed interaction between the learner and the instructor.

Computer-Based Instruction... The site below has a slide show about using computer technology in distance education. It divides computer-based instruction into Multimedia-based (like CD-ROM) and Internet-based (like email and WWW). http://www.cs.uwyo.edu/~rex/virtualu/sld003.htm

One-way and Two-way asynchronous communication One-way communication includes broadcast, videotapes, and multimedia. Two-way communication includes teleconferencing, satellite broadcast, and Cable television.

Web-Based Conferencing While many on-line resources mention this medium, Moore and Kearsley does not. An example of web-based conferencing is CU-SeeMe, the best-known web-based conferencing tool. It is a new tool that replaces long-distance phone calls over the web and escapes long distance charges. The educational applications for this technology seems limited, and with the bandwidth limitations of the World Wide Web it is not a promising technology.

Web-Based Instruction With the fast growth of the Internet, and the fast progress of communication, the world wide web is a new promising medium for distance learning. With the enormous number of resources available online, and the increasing number of people who have access to the Internet, web-based instruction is considered one of the fastest media for teaching and learning.

Web-Based Instruction... Learning Management Systems: *Some of them -Blackboard -WebCT -Moodle -Atutor

Media Selection Issues There is a large number of technologies available for the delivery of distance education course. Selecting the medium is an important part of the efficiency of that course. Each medium has its own strengths and weaknesses, and these should be matched to the nature of the learning setting.

Media Selection Issues... The medium selection process should be undertaken for each course and each program, since they all have different requirements depending on the objectives, learners, and learning environment.

Thank you for attention