Distance education teams include administrators, instructional
designers, technologists, and instructors/facilitators (Miller, 2001; Williams,
2003). The functions of instructors and facilitators then include being a
“facilitator, teacher, organizer, grader, mentor, role model, counselor,
coach, supervisor, problem solver, and liaison” (Riffee, 2003, p. 1;
see also Roberson, 2002; Scagnoli, 2001).
The role of faculty members in distance education requires “some specialized
skills and strategies. Distance education instructors must plan ahead, be
highly organized, and communicate with learners in new ways. They need to
be accessible to students [and] work in teams when appropriate” (PSU,
1998, p. 4). Distance faculty members must be experts in maintaining communication,
because there is increased demand for student interaction in distance learning
(NEA, 2000). Finally, they may have to assume more administrative responsibilities
than is true in a residential model (PSU, 1998).
Alicia Fernandez on 19 Jun 14For more than a century, American schooling has ben conducted in much the same way: The teacher assigns a text for the students to master and then assesses their learning. Known as the "recitation script," this repeated cycle of assign-assess is far from the natural kind of teaching by which societies have been instructing their young since the dawn of time. Contemporary educational reform is now emphasizing the fundamental, natural method of teaching, which is the assisting of learners through the instructional conversation. Newly understood through the principles of socio-historical theory, real teaching is understood as assisting the learner to perform just beyond his or her current capacity. This assistance in the "zone of proximal development" awakens and rouses into life the mental capacities of learners of all ages. This assistance is best provided through the instructional conversation, a dialogue between teacher and learners in which the teacher listens carefully to grasp the students' communicative intent, and tailors the dialogue to meet the emerging understanding of the learners. This pattern of relationship should be characteristic of the communication of the entire school, in which the teachers assist and converse with one another, administrators assist and converse with teachers, and administration provides activity settings in which these instructional conversations can occur. Such a school becomes a true community of learners, in which school reliably assists the performance of all.
