Technology, Time, and Space or What does it Mean to be Present? A Study of the Culture of a Distance Education Class

James D. Swartz and Bobbi Biggs
Journal of Educational Computing Research, Vol 20 No 1, 1999, p. 71-85

Qualitative research methods were used to analyze a three-hour (48 contact hours) distance education course. Analysis suggests that strong teaching skills and classroom management skills were necessary to conduct the course. Far-site independence of movement, talk, and turn taking required special give and take between students and the instructor. Modifications of ordinary class behavior on the part of students and the instructor were noted. In addition, the ramifications of seperating by time and space between instructors and students were discussed. Technologies allow communication across time and space but this separation becomes an artifact of some emerging technologies. Is separation in time and space a problematic phenomenon? An important question may be: What, if anything, does it mean to be physically present?
 

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