Distance learning: technology of the future



The article presents the concepts of “technology”, “information technology”, and “distance learning”. The timeline of the evolution of distance learning development is provided, and the future prospects of distance learning are analyzed.

Keywords: technology, information technology, distance learning, timeline of the evolution of distance learning development.

The ever expanding scientific and technological progress is steadily leading to the introduction of various modern innovative technologies in all areas of life of society. Such innovative technologies, obviously, primarily include information and communication technologies and the Internet. An increasing number of modern information and communication technologies are becoming involved in the processes of the social, economic, scientific, industrial and other areas of people’s work.

One of the areas where the introduction of information and communication technologies and the Internet is proceeding rapidly is education. These technologies played an important role in the modernization of the education system and led to the emergence of a new promising type of remote education — “distance learning”.

The concepts of “technology”, “information technology”, “distance learning”.

In this part of the article, the background and definitions are given for the concepts of “technology”, “information technology” and “distance learning” on the basis of studies found in various sources.

The concept of “technology” was initially used when the topic of the study or research involved production processes. The word “technology” itself is of Greek origin and is written in Greek as “techne”, which means “art, skill, cunning of hand”.

The following are the most common definitions of the term “technology” we have found:

“Technology is a set of methods for processing, manufacturing, changing the state, properties, form of raw materials or semi-finished products carried out in the process of production” [1].

“Technology is a set of production methods and processes of an industry, as well as a scientific description of production methods” [2].

“Technology is the science studying the methods of manipulating raw materials or semi-finished products with the appropriate instruments of production” [3].

“Technology is the sum of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation” [4].

Later, the concept of “technology” began to expand in its application to include the study of various processes of the manufacture of such “products” as “information”. This historic transition was directly related to the emergence and development of information and communication technologies. Thus, the concept underlying the word “technology” changed from “product” to “information”. And in the subsequent references, the concept of “technology” began to be applied to processes of creating and processing information in any area — technical, economic, social and other areas related to human activity [5].

The concept of “information technology” is relatively new, and according to [6, p.8], it has the following definition: “Information technology is a set of methods, techniques and tools for storage, processing, transmission and display of information, which are aimed at improving efficiency and productivity of labor”.

With the Internet, the emerging and rapidly spreading information technologies gave an impetus to the birth of a new concept — “distance learning”.

“Distance learning” originated in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century with the advent of regular postal service and was a “correspondence education”.

To date, there is no clear single definition of the concept of “distance learning”. Some definitions found in the scientific literature are given in the following paragraphs:

“Distance learning” as a learning process in which teacher and student (or students) are geographically separated and therefore rely on electronic and printed materials to organize the learning process (the definition of the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA)) [7, p.11];

“Distance learning” is a remote education technology, in which teachers and students are physically in different places and use case, TV and network technologies (group of MESI (Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics, and Informatics) specialists) [7, p.17];

“Distance learning” is a new level of learning with the use of innovative information technologies (Domracheyev V. G.) [8];

“Distance learning” is focused learning usually carried out at a distance from the location of the teacher (Tikhonov A. N.) [8].

Distance Learning Timeline

Since its inception, the early education system was based on a simple classical type of learning: the student (or students) and the teacher were in the same classroom and engaged in the learning process. With the advent and spread of modern innovative technologies, changes began to occur in the learning processes. Thanks to information and communication technologies and the Internet, the learning process expanded its physical boundaries, went beyond the boundaries of one classroom and was able to become “learning at a distance”, thus, “distance learning”.

“Distance learning” in its development has deep historical roots and specific documented dates and numbers.

The following is an interesting brief timeline that describes the evolution of the development of “distance learning” found in foreign sources on this subject.

A distance learning timeline [9]:

– 1840: Isaac Pitman taught his students shorthand via correspondence.

– 1924: The first testing machine was invented allowing students to test themselves.

– 1954: BF Skinner, a Harvard professor, invented the “teaching machine” which enabled schools to administer programmed instruction to their students.

– 1960: The first computer-based training program was introduced to the world, known as PLATO-Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations.

– 1970: distance learning started to become more interactive.

– Late 20th century: The first MAC in the 1980's enabled individuals to have computers in their homes making distance learning easier. In the 90's, people were able to attend without the constraints of geography and time.

– 21st century: Businesses began using distance learning to train their employees. Mobile phones dramatically enhanced the learning capacity.

As can be seen from the timeline of the evolution of its development, “distance learning” has gone a long historical path, which indicates the demands of the time. Based on modern innovative information and communication technologies and the Internet, “distance learning” can make education accessible to a large number of people separated by geographical distance (or having no opportunity of classroom-based learning for other reasons).

Conclusion

We can conclude from the above that technological changes occur in the modern world constantly. Due to the fast pace of development and spread of modern innovative technologies, such as information and communication technologies and the Internet, changes have affected everything — the social, economic, scientific and industrial areas of society, and the field of education was no exception.

Modern innovative information and communication technologies and the Internet formed the basis for the emergence of a new type of learning — “distance learning”. And since history has shown that the development of distance learning took place in stages according to the needs of society, we can conclude that this type of learning will become promising and popular in the future.

References:

1. Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary. Moscow, 1979, 1338 p. (in Russian)
2. Ozhegov S. I., Shvedova N. Y. Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language. Moscow, 2003, 797 p. (in Russian)
3. Political Dictionary. Moscow, 1989, 534 p. (in Russian)
4. Wikipedia. Electronic resource / Access mode: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology
5. Pushnova, V. V. Information technology and information culture in education. Prospects for the development of information technology: a collection of conference materials, Novosibirsk, 2014, 167 p. (in Russian)
6. Shatunova O. V. Information Technology, Yelabuga: EGPU publishing house, 2007, 77 p. (in Russian)
7. Polat Y. S., Bukharkina M. Y., Moiseyeva M. V. Theory and Practice of Distance Learning, Textbook, Moscow, 2004, 416 p. (in Russian)
8. Goreva O. M., Osipova L. B. Prospects for the development of distance learning, Sovremennie problemy nauki i obrazovaniya, 2015. (in Russian)
9. Mehul Rajput. How Big Is The eLearning Market And The Role Of Mobile Apps? / Access mode: https://elearningindustry.com/big-elearning-market-role-mobile-apps.