Back to the Future Redux: Research Directions for Distance Learning
Closing Thoughts
In summary, we would like to see our field propose a widely accepted agenda of topics for distance education, acknowledging up front that these topics cannot and will not be “conquered” by research, but instead become better understood. We propose a significantly altered research paradigm for distance education research, one that emphasizes meaningful productivity by and for practitioners. And we propose expanding the boundaries of both what constitute a researcher in distance education, and the criteria for what constitutes “good” research. If interaction is critical in the teaching process, it is equally important in the evolution of a profession. Your thoughts and comments are more than welcome to help create a new agenda.
We end as the Old Testament does, with a curse and yet a promise. Michael Hannafin warned 15 years ago that the entire field of instructional technology runs the risk of losing its own identity because it cannot find the clarity necessary to create and sustain a research agenda (Anglin, 1995). Robert Heinich echoed this call by saying that the proper role of research in educational technology should not about education, but about the proper application of the technology. We run the very real risk of relinquishing our field to either “technocrats” or being completely subsumed into another discipline. Let us hope for and work towards a future in which, 100 years hence, we know from whither we cometh, and where we are bound.