A

Distance learning is not a recent innovation in education, correspondence courses having been used for over 150 years, but new interactive technologies are providing new opportunities and strategies for teaching at a distance. Several studies have compared face-to-face classrooms to distance classrooms in order to evaluate differences in student performance and quality of instruction. A meta-analysis of these studies showed that distance-learning students performed equally well and some distance courses outperformed their classroom counterparts. This result has been consistent over many studies across many disciplines; advances in communication technology and innovative methods of delivery of instruction at a distance have challenged the idea that laboratory courses can only be delivered in a face-to-face laboratory setting. In engineering, for example, virtual laboratories have been used to teach thermodynamics, electronic circuits, and other experimental courses as well. Programmes in nursing, engineering, technology and other sciences are beginning to use deliver courses via distance-learning methodology in order to reach students in different locations and boost enrolment.

A survey of online distancelearning programmes revealed a large increase in student enrolment. The availability of distance courses has made it possible for some people to attend college because courses are accessible within their locality or the time of course delivery is convenient for them. This opportunity for learning has not been without its critics who keep a close eye on the quality of instruction, and rightly so as with any form of instructional delivery. Quality issues are a major concern for those who intend to pursue degree programmes via distance learning, especially with the proliferation of distance-learning programmes. Although it is difficult for academics to agree on specific standards that constitute quality in distance learning, nonetheless, attributes such as accreditation standards for programmes, evaluating students’ experiences, teacher-student interaction, student-tostudent interaction, learning resources for the learner, learner assessment and performance, instructional resources for faculty, faculty training, and learner Passage 2 DISTANCE LEARNING 2 satisfaction are valid criteria. These and many other factors can determine the quality of delivery of instruction in both distance and face-to-face classrooms.

B

Distance-Learning Technologies and Innovation in Laboratory Course Delivery In a selected UK university, five departments that offered laboratory courses in Technology and Engineering via distance learning used combinations of a variety of instructional technologies. The technologies most used were Interactive Microwave TV (two-way audio and video), compressed video, the Internet, CDs, computer software (virtual software), and videotapes. At the selected university in the UK, interviews were conducted on-site with faculty and staff. A wide range of teaching materials, student portfolios, and a secure website were observed. In addition to the Internet, CDs, and video, the university used the following innovative ways to deliver laboratory courses. Residential and Summer Schools Residential and summer schools serve a similar purpose; the difference is the duration. The summer school is one week long and combines labs, lectures, and problem sessions. In general, these schools provide four key features, providing the opportunity for students to:

1. undertake experimental work considered too hazardous for a student working at home.

2. undertake lab work using more sophisticated equipment, or equipment too expensive to provide at home.

3. undertake assessed lab work.

4. work together with fellow students.

Some courses even arranged to take students on a study trip, perhaps to a company with special processes, or to a geographic site of interest.

C

Demonstration Laboratory The demonstration laboratory introduces students to the work they are going to undertake, illustrating how to proceed, how to make particular types of measurements, etc. It also covers topics considered too dangerous for students or situations in which the equipment is not available at the residential school. Many of these demonstrations Passage 2 DISTANCE LEARNING 3 are recorded on video to control both the process taught and the quality of the teaching across numerous groups of students at different levels.

D

Support Services Provided to Faculty and Students Engaged in Distance Learning All the departments that offer distance-learning courses offer support services to students and faculty. The support services include e-mail systems, graduate assistants, course websites, proctors, telephone conferencing, electronic library materials, and instructional designers to work with faculty to design and develop courses. At the selected university in the UK, interviews with instructional designers and faculty revealed the significant role played by instructional designers. Although they are not the content experts, they advise faculty, for example, on how information is presented on a website or the format in which the information is presented.

The purpose is to maintain a standard format and quality in print materials, including electronic resources. The selected university in the UK also provides a support service to faculty that is unique from other institutions in this study: staff tutors who are regionally based to provide the link between the university faculty and students within the regions. The staff tutors have a key role in quality assurance, especially in facilitating effective teaching of the university faculty’s courses and are responsible for the selection, monitoring, and development of part-time Associate Lectures. They contribute to faculty research andthe development and presentation of courses. The staff tutors are highly qualified in their fields and as such, bridge the distance gap between the university faculty andstudents at different locations.

E

The UK university, by using innovative strategies such as the Residential and Summer Schools, Field Trips and Demonstration Laboratories in combination with newtechnologies, is able to teach all its laboratory courses via distance learning to its nearly 200,000 students within and outside the UK. Distance learning is not meant to replace a face-to-face classroom, but it is one major way to make education more accessible to society. As advances in communication and digital technology continue, residential or demonstration labs may someday be replaced with comparable experiences provided through distance education.

By Keith Rayncr an Barbara R Foorman

A

Learning to speak is automatic for almost all children, but learning to read requires elaborate instruction and conscious effort. Well aware of the difficulties, educators have given a great deal of thought to how they can best help children learn to read. No single method has triumphed. Indeed, heated arguments about the most appropriate form of reading instruction continue to polarize the teaching community.

B

Three general approaches have been tried. In one, called whole-word instruction, children learn by rote how to recognise at a glance a vocabulary of 50 to 100 words. Then they gradually acquire other words, often through seeing them used over and over again in the context of a story. Speakers of most languages learn the relationship between letters and the sounds associated with them (phonemes). That is, children are taught how to use their knowledge of the alphabet to sound out words. This procedure constitutes a second approach to teaching reading – phonics. Many schools have adopted a different approach: the whole-language method. The strategy here relies on the child’s experience with language. For example, students are offered engaging books and are encouraged to guess the words that they do not knowby considering the context of the sentence or by looking for clues in the storyline andillustrations, rather than trying to sound them out. Many teachers adopted the whole-language approach because of its intuitive appeal. Making reading fun promises to keep children motivated, and learning to read depends more on what the student does than on what the teacher does.

The presumed benefits of whole-language instruction – and the contrast to the perceived dullness of phonics – led to its growing acceptance across American during the 1990s, and a movement away from phonics. Passage 3 How should reading be taught? 2 CHowever, many linguists and psychologists objected strongly to the abandonment oF phonics in American schools. Why was this so? In short, because research had clearly demonstrated that understanding how letters related to the component sounds inwords is critically important in reading. This conclusion rests, in part, on knowledge ofhow experienced readers make sense of words on a page. Advocates of whole-language instruction have argued forcefully that people often derive meanings directly from printwithout ever determining the sound of the word. Some psychologists today accept thisview, but most believe that reading is typically a process of rapidly sounding out words mentally. Compelling evidence for this comes from experiments which show thatsubjects often confuse homophones (words that sound the same, such as Jrose and‘rows’). This supports the idea that readers convert strings of letters to sounds.

D

In order to evaluate different approaches to teaching reading, a number of experiments have been carried out, firstly with college students, then with school pupils.Investigators trained English-speaking college students to read using unfamiliar symbolssuch as Arabic letters (the phonics approach), while another group learned entire words associated with certain strings of Arabic letters (whole-word). Then both groups were required to read a new set of words constructed from the original characters. In general, readers who were taught the rules of phonics could read many more new words thanthose trained with a whole-word procedure.Classroom studies comparing phonics with either whole-word or whole-languageinstruction are also quite illuminating.

One particularly persuasive study compared two programmes used in 20 first-grade classrooms. Half the students were offeredtraditional reading instruction, which included the use of phonics drills and applications.The other half were taught using an individualised method that drew from theirexperiences with languages; these children produces their own booklets of stories anddeveloped sets of words to be recognised (common components of the whole-language approach). This study found that the first group scored higher at year’s end on tests of reading and comprehension.

E

If researchers are so convinced about the need for phonics instruction, why does the debate continue? Because the controversy is enmeshed in the philosophical differences between traditional and progressive (or new) approaches, differences that have divided educators for years. The progressive challenge the results of laboratory tests and Passage 3 How should reading be taught? 3 classroom studies on the basis of a broad philosophical skepticism about the values of such research. They champion student-centred learned and teacher empowerment. Sadly, they fail to realise that these very admirable educational values are equally consistent with the teaching of phonics.

F

If schools of education insisted that would-be reading teachers learned something about the vast research in linguistics and psychology that bears on reading, their graduates would be more eager to use phonics and would be prepared to do so effectively. They could allow their pupils to apply the principles of phonics while reading for pleasure. Using whole-language activities to supplement phonics instruction certainly helps to make reading fun and meaningful for children, so no one would want to see such tools discarded. Indeed, recent work has indicated that the combination of literature-based instruction and phonics is more powerful than either method used alone. Teachers need to strike a balance. But in doing so, we urge them to remember that reading must be grounded in a firm understanding of the connections between letters and sounds. Educators who deny this reality are neglecting decades of research. Theyare also neglecting the needs of their students.