1.7 Utilizing distance education in your professional development

As technology expands the professional development available outside the traditional classroom, it isimportant that educational executives consider the role of distance education in the development of school leaders. The studentpopulation has changed with many older adults, particularly school administrators attending universities and urging the universitiesto provide instruction in more convenient ways. More districts are seeking to develop leadership in their districts through customizedleadership programs.“Working adults want education delivered direct to them, at home or the workplace…. Preparation may be weaker than among conventional students; motivation may bestronger”(Jones&Pritchard, 1999, p. 56).

These new methods of delivery include television and the Internet, both of which allow students to accesscoursework miles from the traditional campus classroom. Instruction will have to change and assignments will need to be more tailoredto a population that is not on campus. College instructors will increasingly encounter classes that are much larger than thetraditional graduate level class. Decisions regarding which courses are selected for distance education need to be carefullyconsidered. As Lamb and Smith (2000) pointed out,“The distance education environment tends to exaggerate both the positive and thenegative aspects of all the elements of instruction”(p. 13). Kelly (1990) noted that instructors must develop new skills for distanceeducation teaching in the areas of timing, teaching methods, feedback from students at remote sites, and the evaluation ofstudents.

Stammen (2001) noted that technologies in and of themselves do not change the nature of leadership but the wayeducators use the technology does. The new technology requires instructors to re-consider and develop additional learner centeredenvironments. To make learning happen instructors need to understand both how to work the content and how the technology isimpacting their instruction. Some are skeptical of university motives noting the prospect of not having to build new facilitiesto accommodate more students has great economic appeal (Weigel, 2000). Regardless, the opportunity to improve the instruction andavailability through the new technology is here to stay.