There are several positive reasons for supporting distance learning. DL is not just taking courses on the Internet, but there are several other ways to demonstrate it. Communication is the greatest asset. Students can locate information quickly for class projects. Email and Internet pages are a fast way to communicate between groups. Teachers gain greater access to learning materials to use with students. Teachers and students can take courses online. This is good for home bound students. The interaction between teachers and students increase through distance learning.

Some of the current issues are digital divide, development and socialization, and the impact of DL on quality of education. Children that come from low income homes do not always have the access to Internet or other resources. This creates a gap in technological knowledge between middle to high income children and our low income children. Children may spent too much time on the computer and not enough time building relationships and gaining social skills. Again the there is the issue of computers and distance learning replacing traditional forms of education.

Discussion Questions #5

What is your position on the relative importance of the two “literacies”? What information from this chapter helps support your position?


In the past, traditional printed literacy was the only way to develop the skills children need to be good readers. In modern society literacy is so much more than printed text. I like the quote from the text book, “Today literacy is no longer an end point to be achieved but rather a process of continuously learning how to be literate.” (Roblyer 279). Technology is always changing or evolving which means there will always be opportunities to learn something new about literacy. Teachers use to keep sets of encyclopedias in there classroom to do research on certain topics, now that information can easily be found using the internet. The internet provides more pictures, text, sound, and also print to assist with the research and they are able to spend more time analyzing and synthesizing the information. Students can now be creative about the way they present the information they have learned instead of the traditional pencil and paper format. They can use digital cameras, camcorders, computer software, or create PowerPoint. Students continue to stay motivated to complete task when the finished product is done in a fun and interesting way. This is especially great for elementary student when going through all the way through the writing process. I cannot count the number of times I was able to keep my students motivated about writing by using the computer. They get so excited to add clip art or their own pictures. When it comes to students using technology in the classroom I am most comfortable with letting them us it for literacy purposes.