Distance Education: A New Paradigm for Physical Education and Health.

Overview & Synopsis

Increasingly, limited financial resources have resulted in program reductions in undergraduate physical education and health education at several higher education institutions. As traditional methods of program delivery are phased out, physical and health educators need to consider alternative forms of training and servicing future professionals. One promising nontraditional strategy is the use of distance education as a delivery source. In distance education, the learner or learners are physically separated from the teacher--a situation that dictates changes in behavior for both the teacher and the learner. To be effective distance educators, teachers must become familiar with a variety of technological systems that deliver instruction and allow interaction between teacher and learner, and they must vary their instructional strategies to meet individual needs. Students must become independent learners, taking a more aggressive role in communicating their needs and seeking feedback. Distance education can take many forms, including video/audio models that incorporate television, satellite transmissions, or computer applications. Physical and health educators can easily adapt core content courses which have traditionally relied on lecture and laboratory experiences to distance education formats for delivery to teacher preparation students. Distance education methods can also be used to deliver instruction in public school settings. (IAH)