Distributed learning, often used as a buzz-word, is more of a paradigm-shift forcing educators and learners to re-examine learning and act differently. From an educator's point of view, distributed learning means providing the same level of educational resources and services to learners regardless of their individual "distances". For learners, distributed learning means access to what, where, when and how they need to learn. Fellow professional educators, beware: there are more learners than there are educators. We need to listen. We need to go where the learners already are as opposed to driving them to us. We need to be learners ourselves.
Certainly, you have heard of training, that's the mode of teaching and learning where adults learn what is immediately beneficial for them (and by extension others) in some practical context, such as work, home or play. It aims primarily at improving skills to fill some gap and to meet some prioritized need. To be effective, this training does not occur outside the practical context. It requires regular feedback and reinforcement with supports. Progress needs to be measured, maintained and pushed forward. So when I write that a training course should be developed, you might already see the irony. Courses do not often sit in the practical context. They kind of just happen. Someone receives a paper saying they survived it and have shown skills improvement. Once the course is done, so is the learning and measuring. Certainly, there is no pushing forward. The training course actually seems counter-intuitive to the act of training and its intentions. Equally, if you managed to read ...
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