Selecting Distance Technologies

Scenario: A high school history teacher, located on the west coast of the United States, wants to showcase to her students new exhibits being held at two prominent New York City museums. The teacher wants her students to take a "tour" of the museums and be able to interact with the museum curators, as well as see the art work on display. Afterward, the teacher would like to choose two pieces of artwork from each exhibit and have the students participate in a group critique of the individual work of art. As a novice of distance learning and distance learning technologies, the teacher turned to the school district’s instructional designer for assistance. In the role of the instructional designer, what distance learning technologies would you suggest the teacher use to provide the best learning experience for her students?

“Teaching with technology to learners who are not physically located in the same site where instruction is taking place requires a different set of skills and competencies than traditional classrooms” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009, p. 119). In this scenario, the instruction will take place in two prominent museums. The students in attendance are housed in a high school on the west coast.

The first thing to address in this scenario is how to get the students “in to” the museum. One distance learning technology I feel would be beneficial for this is two-way audio, one-way video. This piece of technology is just as the name implies. Two-way audio means audio communication is transmitted two ways – instructor to learner and learner to instructor. On the other hand, one-way video means video signals are sent one way only – instructor to learner. In this scenario, the importance of the instructor being able to see the learner is nonexistent. This technology offers synchronous (live) instruction in which the students will be able to see and listen to the museum curators as they “tour” the museum and display art work. In addition, this technology will allow the students to interact with the museum curators by dialing in to ask questions and offer comments. An external resource that showcases how the use of two-way audio, one-way video is used in distance learning may be found at http://www.educationnews.org/political/political_releases/93750.html. This, being only one resource, discusses how this technology is used to bring distance learning to Indian Nations schools.

Also, in the scenario, the teacher has plans to choose two pieces of art work from each exhibit for group critique. Hopefully, a picture of the art pieces to be shared will be sent to the learners before the group critiquing begins. A distance learning technology I feel would aid in this group discussion is two way audio. Two-way audio is a form of technology in which audio transmissions are sent through telephone hookups, radio broadcasts with telephone call-in, or short wave radio. The use of this technology will allow the teacher to introduce the piece of art work up for critiquing and the students may begin their group discussion through audio.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: P