Week 14. Online distance learners in Japan

This week, I reviewed an article “Predictors of Learning Satisfaction in Japanese Online Distance learners.” This article studied the online distance education in Japan. Reading this article, the feeling was complicated, because I could still remember the first day I participated in R685, we all agreed that we are far behind the emerging technology. The article I read here was published in 2008, and according to the authors, we are still far behind. However, the surprising points is that the reason we are falling behind is not because we don’t the access to reach these emerging technology, but because we are hamper to bread the original model such as the author mentioned, the teachers’ authoritative role, culture value. I was also surprised to know that so far, there are still only a few universities in Japan where students can study entirely online at a distance. Because of the invention of technology products such as NDS, PS3, XBOB, I think the technology integration in education in Japan should be very flourish; however, the truth is that they might be more falling behind than other Asian countries, such as China where the open-sources software is supported by governments, and other institutions. As educators, I think though new doesn’t necessarily better, we at least need to give it a try and should not sacrifice students’ benefits just because we are hamper to step forward.