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Interestingly, at least for those of us intrigued by the rhetoric of naming, Distance Education seems to be in the process of being renamed "Distributed Learning"--because it is increasingly just an alternative delivery method. There was, for instance, a policy forum on "Distributed Learning Environments held in BC in 1995 and Robert Martin (UVic) is doing a dissertation on it. At SFU, the most common "distance education" address is one of our dorms! (Why, if one is going to call certain sorts of education "distributed learning," it doesn't include what we do in our classrooms is also, I think, a question worth asking.) The virtues of distance education for those people living in places where they can't easily access learning by more tradition means seem clear to me. The use of this delivery method (itself an interesting naming) as an alternative ot having a group of learners meet in a room at particular times--well, I haven't run into a lot of studies about the effectiveness or virtues of that (except, of course, regarding its convenience and cost-effectiveness). At 09:36 PM 10/19/98 -0400, Cathy wrote, among other things: > >Waterloo has also had a long history of Distance Education >involvement--especially in English. Across Canada right now DE is >declining, and this is now affecting our programs as well. I think the >stats we have been talking about mention the decline in part-time students. >Well a lot of those students might have been DE students. My impression is >that after years of profiting from but ignoring DE, universities, including >WAterloo, are now scrambling, trying to invent new courses and programs to >bring back the DE students. I think, however, we are going to need a lot of >investment to compete with on-line resources that already exist. > >I have already ventured in this direction myself by creating an on-line >writing course. I am piloting it right now--my biggest challenge has not >been the interactive part. Several software systems exist that facilitate >on-line discussion. The tough part has been the annotation >software--software designed to facilitate peer editing and comments on >drafts. I looked into Common Space, but it wouldn't work in a purely >on-line, web site environment. The THING I am struggling with is an new >IBM product, and it is truely driving me crazy. > >If anybody knows of a better software for on-line editing please let me know. >Catherine F. Schryer >Dept. of English >University of Waterloo >Waterloo, Ontario, Canada >N2L 3G1 >(519) 885-1211 (ext 3318) >