Rick,  your rhetorical question about 'distance Education' or "distributed
Education"  is  really valid - I was  a DE tutor marker for many years, -
and  when i lived on campus, had student living in the building, who tried
to slip  papers under  my  door  - but  they couldn't do that  they had to
take the paper  down the road to the Distance Education building mail drop
box -- which also  brought up some ethical/pedagogical issues about real
bodies  versus  virtual bodies in DE spaces.

However,  when I was a "mature' student iwth a family  and   full-time jog,
DE made it possible forme to  speed up my course access - because I could
manage it at home  - and having lived on  campus as a grad student - i
noticed that accesss is still problematic for first year and
non-traditional students with families.  so  distributed education/distance
education is becoming more necessary than ever  i feel.
Also  - although i  enjoyed working with online software  First Class in
the Distance Education context -  the actual  work load was  exponentially
time consuming - and incredibly  engrossing, demanding  and interactive  -
so much more so than the regular  mark the essay , answer the  office hours
time plan of the regular Distance Education environment

- In the course that I worked in ( Designs for Learning Writing -  Teaching
Writing for Teachers ) every Tutor marker  including myself - were
constantly struggling with the huge demands of time - and constantly in
dispute  with the Centre (and union)   over the hours that had to extra
billed  (  about 30 - 50% depending on expertise )

 there are curious reasosn why Distance  ed. wants to develop online
courses  but still pay through  the old  way 9 baed on bodies -not on
workload)  and how it visualises course development, its supervisors and
its  grad student markers as working within the  old technology formula  -
i.e. write a handbook and study guide, devlop the assignments, hire other
people to mark the essays, revise in two years.

I think  also there are not so innocent incentives for institutions  to use
these on-line technologies  because  they offer up hugely  rich sources of
'data" for instructional education/technology  - corporate technologies,
etc. and   especially  with some software programs  that leave a history of
each  interaction.  i have some concerns with the issue of 'access"
informed consent  of students, thse technologies are intrusive and
insistent,.

to give  an example, at SFU in the fist Class model an outside CDE director
can pop into a conference,  go to our particular course folder,  and count
interactions around an assignment.  In our class, students noticed  the
"lurker" requested  contact which was declined.  fortunately we had a
record of the event - because  this is a feature of the First Class
software.  - in a real world situation this would be the equilavlent of
walking into a classroom,  opening a students written journal and  counting
the words on the  page,  and leaving  - without introducing themselves, or
without asking permission of instructor or student.  We kicked up  a fuss,
and  they did their counting AFTER the class was over.  - still doesn't
dodge the  ethical issue -

On the other hand, one of my students said - mid-point in the course
--"this writing is like a truth serum'  - when it works well, on-line
composition and interaction can be very exciting and motivating - and
supportive - especially for students  who are truly learning from a
distance.

the final note is around the mandate for access which Distance Education
should be supporting -- the level of new technology that is required to
support on-line learning  is not as ubiquitous as folks in urban centres of
higher learning  might presume - computer users might not have modems, or
the  infrastructure in remote rural areas to support the demands.  i have
worked with teachers who  only had access during open school hours - if all
was working  right.


So  like all technologies  and pedagogies - DE is complex, contradictory
and full of possibilities.

kathryn


KathrynAlexander,
Doctoral Candidate
Simon Fraser University
Faculty of Education.,
Burnaby, B.C.  V5A 1S6
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