EDTEC 650 - Another start

I started my fall semester today. The main course I am taking this semester is EDTEC 650: Distance Education.

The major text for the course is Handbook of Distance Education edited by Moore & Anderson. It includes seven sections comprising 55 chapters. Many of the top writers in the field contributed to the handbook. Therefore, it is a great source of information, particularly for the beginning practitioner, about distance education. I hope to concentrate most closely on the section about International Perspectives. However, I also feel it is important for me to read and understand the first section – Historical and Conceptual Foundations – to serve as foundational knowledge for all other sections.

My main area of interest in distance education relates to how culture affects online learning. That is why I am most interested in the International Perspectives section. I started the book by reading the preface and overview by Michael G. Moore. In it he mentioned a problem with researchers today is that they do not know what other researchers have written. This lends added impetus for me to read the first section of the book. It could be argued that it indicates I should read the entire book. It certainly points to the need to read widely in the field, especially in the main area of one’s interest.

The Handbook of Distance Education is over 800 pages long. When I add to that the hundreds of references, representing perhaps thousands of pages, listed in the International Perspectives section, I see that I am embarking on the start of a very long quest. Nevertheless, it is a quest I am keenly interested in making. I must quickly improve and speed up both my reading and writing skills.