Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label andree swanson

History of Distance Learning

Historical Overview by Dr. Andree Swanson Early History of Distance Education Contrary to the myth that distance learning is the result of the Internet, non-traditional distance education has its beginnings in Biblical times. Distance education first appeared in the early Christian church. “Paul wrote letters to newly formed churches in the hope that they might learn about the way” (Coe, 1999, p. 354). Later, Mongolian educators "taught that Genghis Khan established a national ‘mobile learning’ system” using speedy equestrians as the delivery method (Baggaley, 2008, p. 42). The correspondence style teaching approach grew through the years until a formal approach to education was developed. In the 19 th century, organizations and colleges began providing lessons and instruction using correspondence. As early as 1837, Sir Isaac James Pitman taught correspondence courses in stenographic shorthand and later created the Phonographic Correspondence Society (Casey, 2008; Tr

An Evaluation of Social Connectedness Online

By Dr Andree Swanson Picture by Dr. Andree Swanson Communicating in the online learning environment is difficult at best.  To feel connected to faculty and fellow students is almost impossible.  Interpersonal exchanges are “more difficult for online students to engage in the kinds of collaborative peer interactions that often result in the construction of meaning and achievement of learning goals” (Slagter van Tryon & Bishop, 2012, p. 347).  Slagter van Tryon and Bishop (2006) have been studying the topic of social connectivity as it relates to student engagement and interaction, and coined the phrase e-connectivity (e-mmediacy).  Swanson, Hutkin, Babb, and Howell (2010) defined as:  “ E-mmediacy or e-connectivity is the feelings or believing of social connectedness that students and faculty get through the technologically enhanced online learning environment (Slagter van Tyson, 2007; Slagter van Tyson & Bishop, 2006)” (p. 17). Before this current study, there

Why is Wikipedia not a Strong Source for Papers?

By Dr. Andree Swanson Wikipedia is not considered a valid and reliable reference.  Most professors will not accept citation or reference from Wikipedia.   First, it is most likely copied and pasted from the web.   Second, the information may not be accurate. In April 2006, when I first wrote this article, this paragraph looked like this: The content of Wikipedia is free, written collaboratively by people from all around the world. This website is a wiki, which means that anyone with access to an Internet-connected computer can edit, correct, or improve information throughout the encyclopedia, simply by clicking the edit this page link (with a few minor exceptions such as protected articles)...On Wikipedia...you are welcome to...edit articles yourself, contributing knowledge as you see fit in a collaborative way. Today, the anonymous authors have been busy and changed the content.   Here is how the above paragraph looks today in December 2013: Wikipedia is writ

Stakeholder Orientation and Stakeholder Marketing

Stakeholder Orientation Ferrell, Fraedrich and Ferrell (2013) stated that, “The degree to which a firm understands and addresses stakeholder demands can be referred to as stakeholder orientation” (p. 35).   According to Duesing (2009), one of the primary management theories is the Stakeholder Orientation (SO).      Ansoff (1965) initially discussed SO in terms of “balancing the conflicting claims of the various ‘stakeholders’ in the firm: managers, workers, stockholders, suppliers, vendors. The firm has a responsibility to all of these and must configure its objectives so as to give each a measure of satisfaction” as cited in Duesing. Multiple authors have added to this definition to include the community and environment (Berman et al., 1999) to competitors and other industries (Greenley & Foxall, 1997) as cited in Duesing. Duesing (2009) posits that literature has previously stated that SO positively affects organizational performance.   The results of Duesing’s study s