Distance Education and Special Education: Promises, Practices, and Potential Pitfalls

Abstract

Shortages of trained personnel in special education are widely recognized. This need typically translates to special education programs as efforts to increase the numbers of professionals who are appropriately prepared to teach students with disabilities. The difficulty of increasing on-campus sections to respond effectively to the escalating need for more and better trained teachers, has in some cases led to an increased emphasis on alternative ways to deliver required course work. Distance learning is one such alternative. Distance learning can be defined as the separation of the learner from the instructor in location (learner and instructor in different rooms or at different sites), and, in some instances, by time. The promise of distance learning offers an attractive alternative for increasing the numbers of appropriately prepared special education personnel by making college-level instruction easier to receive. Current practices support synchronous communication (e.g., two-way audio, two-way video in real time, or two-way audio, one-way video in real time) and asynchronous communication (E-mail, or the Asynchronous Learning Network which does not necessarily occur in real time but at varying times depending on participants needs). Although it is possible to increase enrollments via distance learning, professionals recognize that there are some potential problems as well. If careful planning and course delivery are not clearly articulated students at remote sites can feel as if they are not part of the whole and that the education they are receiving is substandard. This article reviews promises, practices, and pitfalls associated with distance learning in an effort to inform special education professionals about this increasingly popular personnel preparation alternative.