According to Siemens (2010), there is a growing acceptance of distance learning in the fields of education and business. Global diversity is one facet of distance education that has tremendously evolved over the past few years. Its development has helped create a myriad of learning environments for students and teachers alike by inviting student and teacher perspectives to be shared among the participants. In my opinion, global diversity means interpersonal interactions, exchange of ideas and opinions, shared decision making and an understanding for how people of other cultures think and respond to academics and worldly events. Of course this may be difficult to achieve when conversations occur between participants of varying languages. However, much can be gained by developing an understanding of different cultures.
In the first blog I researched about global diversity: http://blog.kathyschrock.net/. The author, Kathy Schrock, visited Nice, France to participate in the European Council of International Schools. Schrock (2010) shared her personal experiences of immersing herself into the French culture while trying to feel comfortable communicating with French people. From this experience, she felt a strong urge to support students to globally communicate both synchronously and asynchronously with the aid of technology.
There are many online tools available to help give students and teachers the opportunities to add a global dimension to their learning experiences. Skypes, blogs, wikispaces, chatrooms, discussions, videos and collaborative tasks are some of the technologies that will enable communication and understanding of diverse populations.
In a second blog: http://www.ablsc.com/distance-education/topic-global-diversity/ the administrator comments about the lack of true global diversity within the Laureate Group. He notes that although Walden University offers online programs for diverse Americans and the availability of international sites in Amsterdam, Asia, Mexico, Central America, South America and Europe, he argues that none of the these programs address true global diversity. He doesn’t feel that distance education is the best forum to really see or hear another person speak. He thinks that the best way to create a relationship with another person or group of people is to have face-to-face interactions where you can see body language and facial expressions while conversing.
Perhaps distance education and the element of global diversity will continue to evolve as technology continues to provide us with the tools and opportunities to transition away from traditional classroom learning into a richer deeper understanding of worldly developments. Although some may argue that this can not be enhanced with distance education it is fair to say that it does provide a unique opportunity for learners to begin to engage in discussions with people that they would not typically interact with.
References:
Schrock, K., (2010, November 17). My global education: What I learned this week. [Web
log post]. Retrieved from http://blog.kathyschrock.net/
Siemens, G. (2008). The future of distance education. (Vodcast). Principles of
Distance Education DVD produced by Laureate Education, Inc., Baltimore.
Topic: Global Diversity. (2009, Dececember 31). Retrieved from: http://www.ablsc.com/distance-education/topic-global-diversity/