Rose Tirotta, Ed.D., Associate Director of Teaching Excellence
The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) welcomes you to the launch of our blog! We begin this adventure on the first day of National Distance Learning Week (NDLW), 2020. NDLW was founded in 2007 by Drexel University Online in collaboration with the United States Distance Learning Association.
“During NDLW, students, faculty and champions of online education celebrate its tremendous growth and accomplishments, while working towards the possibilities of the future” (National Distance Learning Week, n.d.).
If we take a step back in time, we can look at the first “distance learning” courses which began with Isaac Pitman in England in 1844. Not surprisingly, Pittman taught these courses by sending “content” to his students and getting their “assessments” back via the new postal system. Pitman then corrected the documents and sent them back to the student with feedback – a critical component (Tait, 2003). We have come a long way since 1844 with technology pushing us forward in recent years. While the postal service gave distance learning its first breath back in 1844, online learning became possible with the birth of the Internet in the 1980s (“History of the Internet,” 2020). Then, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, things started to get interesting with the advent of some truly transformational technologies..
Blackboard was founded in 1997 (“Blackboard Inc.,” 2020); YouTube was founded in 2005 (“YouTube,” 2020); and the iPhone was first unveiled in 2007 (“IPhone,” 2020).
Despite the arrival of these technologies, engagement, assessment, and feedback are still critical. However, the tools allow us to achieve our goals more seamlessly as we focus on our teaching.
A second big push towards online learning of course happened this past spring with the pandemic moving many more students and faculty online.
Since we unfortunately can’t meet in person for a NDLW event, we decided to launch our blog which, over the next week and beyond , will publish posts that highlight the kinds of support that CELT offers, including online and distance learning. .
For our inaugural week, we will post a different topic each day related to distance or online education. After that, we will post every two weeks on various topics related to teaching and learning. There are a myriad of different terms and definitions related to distance and online learning and tomorrow’s post will attempt to provide some clarity.
If you would like to participate in NDLW, , there are virtual NDLW events being offered throughout the country. To get more information and to register for them, take a look at our NDLW web page.
We appreciate all the time you spend with us. If you have any suggestions for upcoming posts or if you would like to write a guest post, please reach out to us at CELT@stonybrook.edu
References
Blackboard Inc. (2020). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
History of the Internet. (2020). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
iPhone. (2020). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
National Distance Learning Week. (n.d.). Drexel University Online. Retrieved October 28, 2020, from https://www.online.drexel.edu/news/ndlw.aspx
YouTube. (2020). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=YouTube&oldid=986831989