Choosing Appropriate Technologies in Distance Education

Abstract

The most important aspects of technological approaches in teaching are: flexibility of media, professional production and design, choose of the most appropriate media, high level of teaching, balance variety with economy.
The number of new technologies introduced into distance education over the last ten years has expanded rapidly. There are two quite different levels of decision-making involved in selecting and using media and technologies in distance education: setting up a programme based on certain technologies or making the most appropriate use of the media and technologies available. When selecting media for a program you make your decision based on: accessibility, costs, teaching ability, interactively, organizational issues, novelty, and speed.
For distance education programmes that use computer-mediated communication extensively in their delivery system, the possibility exists to forego the production of ‘hard copy’ materials altogether. Computer applications in distance education are: administration, communications, student assessment, course production, computer-based learning.