Learning Entry Blog - Distance Learning

Distance learning has become more and more popular through all ages and levels of learning. For instance Florida Virtual School has expanded to now include elementary thru high school. Some think that this expansion is not needed and/or is not a good idea to have children at such a young age going to school on the internet. Yet, in my opinion this does not necessarily have to be the child's only schooling method, this can be used as a supplement to keep kids on track and even ahead of schedule. As for middle school and high school having distance learning available allows the kids to get ahead so they can take other electives and make their school experience more enjoyable. I personally took a class through the Florida Virtual School in high school and was able to take an extra class that I would not have been able to take otherwise. Distance learning can also be advantageous to those students who either fall behind or even started late, it can help them to catch up and stay with students closer to their age.
However, there are drawbacks to distance learning. If that is a child's only method of schooling it can harm their social interaction and person-to-person interaction. Also many students take these online classes in college and many have admitted to not spending as much time, energy and attention to them because they are online so are not very interactive.
Florida virtual school is one of the best virtual schools in the nation and is often times used as a template for other virtual schools, sometimes we have to trust the professionals and believe that they know what they are doing. In the end, its up to the parent and/or students whether or not to take the class(es) online, they are not forcing anything, it is just an option.

Distance learning can be advantageous in almost any field of study, there are many times courses to train new employees, with distance learning readily available new employees can start sooner and don't have to travel very far to start training. Sport management can benefit from distance learning because some events are in different states and the organizers have to travel to setup and run the events. If this were the case, they wouldn't be able to attend classes during that time period, distance learning can give them the chance to keep up with their class no matter where they are. It can also be beneficial if an employee wants to pursue a masters but the company can afford to let them go, they can further their education and work at the same time with distance education.

Below is a video from YouTube of a commmercial from one of the many schools that offer distance education. Nait, Pheonix, Capella and many universities offer distance education. They know that there are other aspects of people's lives thats restrict them from furthering their schooling and are more inclined to offer other avenues.

Learning Entry Blog- Wikis

Wikis are a great way to organize trip and stay in touch with people. Essentially they allow any and all users to create and edit Web page content at their own leisure. Wikis are easily used by many people and are frequently used to post crosslinks between pages. According to wiki.org the concept of " 'open editing' has some profound and subtle effects on Wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by nontechnical users." There have been many advances to help users understand wikis including many YouTube videos that explain how to use them to people who are not technologically advanced. One of the most popular wikis is Wikipedia. This website is often times used for research, it can be edited by its users to deepen the amount of information.

This aspect of the world wide web can be greatly used in my field of study to link spectators and participants to important information and other sites. With the knowledge of wikis and the "Plain English" videos presented by Common Craft events can be run smoothly and everyone can receive great knowledge about the event(s). Sport Management is a field with many events and particants and spectators; making everything run smoothly is a "prized possession." Even if not used by participants and spectators wikis could help within organizations. Having a wikis within an organization would help the organization of the event so everyone knows what is going on at all times instead of just one person at a time, and also allows each user to edit and change the ideas.

The following is a video from YouTube, about a commonly used website to create wikis and what they are all about! The video is by common craft and is the same format as that of the "Plain English" videos. It shows you how to create your own wiki. ENJOY!!!!