Distance Learning - the parent of e-learning

I recently took part in a webinar on e-learning strategies with Gihan Perera. He helps business leaders with their e-marketing and e-learning strategies and is the author of my favourite resources in this area.  Gihan drew an analogy between e-learning and distance learning, something that has been happening in Australia for decades.  Suddenly all my own experiences of distance education came flooding back.  

These included the joys and frustrations of combining the role of mum and teacher; of opening assignments and writing reports to a school system thousands of miles away.  Those memories helped me look with fresh eyes at the learning systems I am building to support expats as their organisations move them around the globe.  

The things I valued most in distance education are the things I want to build into my e-learning systems.

Many of you know that in the mid 90s, I moved with my husband and young family to Hefei in Anhui province in China. While Hefei had, and still has, some of the best engineers and the nicest people you would ever want to meet, it didn't have an English language school system when I was there in the mid nineties.  In fact, the classrooms were very crowded and lacked many of the resources we took for granted. So we decided that I would home-school Sarah, our beautiful, energetic, and talkative four- year-old daughter.

That meant joining the School of Distance Education based in Dubbo in rural NSW. They assured us we would receive resources and support from them as I worked to "teach" Sarah from home.

Our first experience of their service was receiving the BIG BOX. It was the first of many big boxes to arrive, containing so many exciting treasures; paints, play dough, crisp paper, crayons, coloured pencils, chalk, and beautiful library books!  Yes there were also lesson plans and curriculum details and requests for reports for the "teacher" to write but these seemed effortless because they were accompanied by such magical things as glitter and stickers and Cuisenaire rods.  The contents of the box had to include the things we needed to complete the lesson plan so at times some unusual items made it into the box, including the chocolate cake lesson plan, which spanned the maths, science, art and English curriculum and was accompanied by a packet mix chocolate cake!

There was also a need to pack the box carefully given the customs regulations. Sometimes newspapers and magazines and library books would get through and other times the censors would remove things.  The contents had to be considered and packed in light of the learner’s situation.

Each box was packed by the BEST TEACHER. Miss Jane was an early childhood specialist who was Sarah's teacher and my supporter for the full three years we lived in China. She was an expert teacher who understood how to communicate curriculum concepts through fun lesson plans. She was also a distance learning expert who understood the joys and frustrations of educating beyond the typical classroom environment.  She knew that my pupil would prefer to be riding her bike to visit the goats nearby or catching crickets in the long grass instead of writing about these adventures. Miss Jane’s expertise and support were invaluable in keeping me going when I felt I was doing a terrible job and failing to engage Sarah in a love of writing.

The ON-GOING SUPPORT included faxes each week and then later it changed to emails. In Australia there was radio contact (the school of the air) but it didn't reach to China.  The Internet was just beginning to dangle such possibilities before us. Those weekly letters were a life-line for me.

In reviewing the highlights, some FACE- TO -FACE meetings stood out. We travelled to Dubbo, where the welcome we received at the school made all subsequent educational experiences pale by comparison. Being surrounded by other Distance Ed Mums from Australia's outback (some educating much larger broods and with many more challenges than me) made my experience seem easier. I thought I had difficulties shopping and finding educational resources but these women were hundreds of miles from even the smallest of shops and not only managed to run lessons but also to join in cattle musters or cook for crowds of shearers while setting up the lesson plan for the next day!

When I felt that my skills and knowledge as an adult educator weren’t working in my new situation, Miss Jane suggested attending a real school and observing.  So on a trip home to New Zealand, my old friend Terry Neal (now an expert in e-learning strategies herself), took me to visit her children's school in Wellington where I was educated about routines and classroom rhythms.  In Motueka I sat in on lessons, watching the best kindergarten teacher in the world, (my sister) and was inspired to use more visual stimulation and become more relaxed to make lessons fun.

Those F2F experiences gave me inspiration and ideas and helped me to continue on through the challenging days of early reading and writing.

So the critical lessons to be applied in my e-learning resources?

• Pack a great BOX OF RESOURCES to surprise and delight
• Use the BEST TEACHERS who are experts in their fields
• Provide ON-GOING SUPPORT keeping in touch with the learners
• Allow some FACE-TO-FACE situations or communities where learners can gather together      

By the way, Sarah is now an excellent writer and is currently working on her first blog "Everything I learnt in life I learnt from Sci Fi" (ironic perhaps)!