Workshop Notes

I met with several of my workshop invitees--in person--Thursday. I did not provide a handout but had meaningful dialogue that raised the comfort levels of several people present. Once again, my assumptions went unsupported: non-participation was simply because people were busy--one was out of town, one was finishing up a contract position and in the middle of job interviews, one forgot because of other distractions, one did not think she had anything of value to say (now convinced otherwise). I am in the process of re-inviting them all as a renewal practice of the transactional distance theory--the structure is pretty low, so the dialogue must, of necessity, increase--that is my responsibility. Also, I see the theories for instructional design useful here--especially in teaching the wiki elements with mastery in mind--so I see the Structural Learning Theory might work for that--a structural analysis of the wiki knowledge and breakdown content into the learning paths--building onto the prior mastery as we go, and each learner can achieve the mastery in their own way--yes, I see the value here...however, the behavioral approach is also relevant, as I must do some "shaping" to set up the lesson--prior to stepping the path of the routine process--what the learner needs as a background--and looking at the component skills beforehand that will stimulate the knowledge creation through practice...so this is what I will have to do next--The lesson plan extraordinaire--and the decreasing of the transactional distance, as well. Also, my increased practice in posting--serves as what Moore calls "internal didactic conversation" and decreases transactional distance between myself and my mentor at Distance Education Village.

Reading Notes on Moore: Theory of Transactional Distance

This is a brief note concerning Moore's Theory of Transactional Distance.
Learning across distance--the transaction involves actors (learners/teachers), environments, behavioral patterns and communication techniques. Structure and dialogue determine transactional distance, i.e., low transactional distance occurs under conditions of more dialogue and less rigid structure (flexibility in responsiveness to needs), whereas high transactional distance occurs when teacher-learner dialogue is minimal or nonexistant, within a highly structured format. Learner autonomy represents another aspect of transactional distance, whereby the learner benefits from appropriate levels of ongoing dialogue and structure to facilitate a greater comfort level in various high-transactional distance situations, where autonomous inquiry decisions and modifications occur frequently.