Selecting Distance Learning Technologies

As the instructional designer, I would first assist the teacher with researching museums with the technology for navigating online tours and other visitor interaction. Next I would suggest that the teacher select from blogs, wikis, or discussion boards to provide the students with meaningful and appealing learning experiences (Beldarrain, 2006).

Weblogs (or blogs) are a collection of writings that can serve as student portfolios that keep record of an individual’s progress, serve as excellent tools for the students’ critiques, in addition to evaluation of performance and reflection of course content (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012). It is a good source of online collaborative learning (Beldarrain, 2006). Instructors use blogs to document the student’s personal and intellectual growth throughout the course. Some blogs are student-controlled while others are instructor-managed. For instance, a student can post a blog assignment stating their analysis on each piece of artwork, which one that student preferred, and their rationale for choosing it.

Discussion boards can be used by the teacher to post questions and discuss responses pertaining to the topic, along with readings, audio, and video clips. (Simonson et al., 2012). Discussions can be facilitated using online learning tools such as Blackboard and WebCT. Students would then have the ability to post comments and/or questions on the discussion board, and it serves as another good assessment tool of student performance and knowledge.

Wikis are useful tools for collaborative online writing assignments and group activities, in addition to building relationships among learners (Beldarrain, 2006). They can successfully promote collaboration among instructors, staff, and students. Students could create their own collaborative or individual wiki to share their opinions of the artwork.

References:

Beldarrain, Y. (2006). Distance education trends: Integrating new technologies to foster student interaction and collaboration. Distance Education, 27(2), 139–153.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.