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first generation of distance education technology was by postal correspondence

second generation, defined by the mass media of television, radio, and film production

interactive technologies: first audio, then text, video, and then web and immersive conferencing

less clear what defines the so-called fourth- and even fifth-generation distance technologies except for a use of intelligent data bases (Taylor, 2002) that create “intelligent flexible learning” or that incorporate Web 2.0 or semantic web technologies

repertoire of options available to DE designers and learners has increase

Many educators pride themselves on being pedagogically (as opposed to technologically) driven in their teaching and learning designs

two being intertwined in a dance: the technology sets the beat and creates the music, while the pedagogy defines the moves

To some extent, our pedagogical processes may themselves be viewed as technologies

none of these three pedagogical generations has disappeared, and we will argue that all three can and should be effectively used to address the full spectrum of learning needs and aspirations of 21st century learners.

Behavioural learning theory begins with notions of learning which are generally defined as new behaviours or changes in behaviours that are acquired as the result of an individual’s response to stimuli

Although learning was still conceived of as an individual process, its study expanded from an exclusive focus on behaviour to changes in knowledge or capacity that are stored and recalled in individual memory.

The locus of control in a CB model is very much the teacher or instructional designer

It is notable that such models gained a foothold in distance education at a time when there were limited technologies available that allowed many-to-many communication. Teleconferencing was perhaps the most successful means available but came with associated costs and complexity that limited its usefulness. The postal service and publication or redistribution of messages was very slow, expensive, and limited in scope for interactivity. Methods that relied on one-to-many and one-to-one communication were really the only sensible options because of the constraints of the surrounding technologies.

Cognitive presence is the means and context through which learners construct and confirm new knowledge

Later developments in cognitive theory have attempted to design learning materials in ways that maximized brain efficiency and effectiveness by attending to the types, ordering, timing, and nature of learning stimulations

Learning was thought of as an individual process, and thus it made little difference if one was reading a book, watching a movie, or interacting with a computer-assisted learning program by oneself or in the company of other learners

reduction of the role and importance of the teacher further fueled resentment by traditional educators against the CB model of distance education

While appropriate when learning objectives are very clear, CB models avoid dealing with the full richness and complexity of humans learning to be, as opposed to learning to do

People are not blank slates but begin with models and knowledge of the world and learn and exist in a social context of great intricacy and depth.

technology became widely used to create opportunities for both synchronous and asynchronous interactions between and among students and teachers

Social-constructivist pedagogy acknowledges the social nature of knowledge and of its creation in the minds of individual learners.

Teachers do not merely transmit knowledge to be passively consumed by learners; rather, each learner constructs means by which new knowledge is both created and integrated with existing knowledge

The locus of control in a social-constructivist system shifts somewhat away from the teacher, who becomes more of a guide than an instructor, but who assumes the critical role of shaping the learning activities and designing the structure in which those activities occur

social-constructivist models only began to gain a foothold in distance education when the technologies of many-to-many communication became widely available, enabled first by email and bulletin boards, and later through the World Wide Web and mobile technologies

Cognitive presence also assumes that learners are actively engaged, and interaction with peers is perhaps the most cost-effective way to support cognitive presence

It remains challenging to apply learning where it can blossom into application and thus demonstrate true understanding

Social interaction is a defining feature of constructivist pedagogies. At a distance, this interaction is always mediated, but nonetheless, it is considered to be a critical component of quality distance education

the educator is a guide, helper, and partner where the content is secondary to the learning process; the source of knowledge lies primarily in experiences

teaching presence in constructivist pedagogical models focuses on guiding and evaluating authentic tasks performed in realistic contexts.

Constructivist distance education pedagogies moved distance learning beyond the narrow type of knowledge transmission that could be encapsulated easily in media through to the use of synchronous and asynchronous, human communications-based learning

learning is the process of building networks of information, contacts, and resources that are applied to real problems. Connectivism was developed in the information age of a networked era (Castells, 1996) and assumes ubiquitous access to networked technologies

It is noteworthy that connectivist models explicitly rely on the ubiquity of networked connections between people, digital artifacts, and content, which would have been inconceivable as forms of distance learning were the World Wide Web not available to mediate the process. Thus, as we have seen in the case of the earlier generations of distance learning, technology has played a major role in determining the potential pedagogies that may be employed.

learners have access to powerful networks and, as importantly, are literate and confident enough to exploit these networks in completing learning tasks

exposing students to networks and providing opportunities for them to gain a sense of self-efficacy in networked-based cognitive skills and the process of developing their own net presence

Connectivist learning is based as much upon production as consumption of educational content

The activities of learners are reflected in their contributions to wikis, Twitter, threaded conferences, Voicethreads, and other network tools. Further, social presence is retained and promoted through the comments, contributions, and insights of students who have previously engaged in the course and that persist as augmentable archives to enrich network interactions for current students

learners and teacher collaborate to create the content of study, and in the process re-create that content for future use by others

stress to teaching presence is the challenge presented by rapidly changing technologies