Revisiting the five generations of distance education : Quo vadis?

Abstract

The history of distance education (DE) has been documented and researched by many scholars in the past. Different scholars have attempted to categorise different phases of the development of DE, as it responded to changes in technology and learning theory. These genealogical models propose a number of generations, ranging between three and six. All of these models propose the advent of DE to be based in correspondence education in the early 1900s. According to the majority of DE genealogical models, the invention of the printing press is the definitive moment in the history of DE. Since then, the evolution of different technologies has shaped DE and our understanding of DE's development and future. In this article we attempt to provide a richer picture of the development of DE. We describe not only how, through the ages, DE has responded to distance and the Medusian gaze of technology, but also how pedagogy, the ownership of 'content', the understanding of the curriculum and the broader context of higher education have shaped (and still shape) DE. In this article we reflect on the generational models and ponder on the role of content, communication and context in the development of DE. We question the claim of technology as the only driver of development in DE. An understanding of the development of DE, responding to developments in pedagogy, context, technology and the broader educational project, provides DE practitioners with a better basis to understand current challenges and plan accordingly.