瑞典远程教育的发展与模式

Sweden: 106 Years of Distance Education Development and Competing Paradigms

本文描述瑞典远程教育的背景与环境。随着整个世界的变革,远程教育的目标、策略及学生来源在一百多年的实践过程中也发生了根本性的变革,新的政策、理论和技术为远程教育增添了新的机遇和新的参与者。今天,利用数字化信息的学习者可以在任何地方,通过移动电话和计算机连接到互联网获取信息,这就给教育机构提出了新的要求:灵活、更新、适合、快速并且兼备愉悦性以吸引学生。同时,教育机构的另一挑战是如何利用新技术的优势,发展新型的教学论,鼓励创造力、批判性思维,同时学会抵制和对抗欺骗性学习行为。关于教育与学习,具有时代特征的是文本、图片、声音、照片及电影等普遍的“复制粘贴”技术,这些技术一方面可以以建设性的和发展性的方式被利用,同时也可能用于违法、欺骗和毁灭性的使用。本文将以自上而下和由内及外的方式,来讨论远程教育在瑞典的发展与瑞典政治目标与政策的关系。由于教育逐渐全球化而且受国家政策以外其他力量的影响,因此也用自下而上和由内及外的方法讨论一些新的概念。文章的第二部分讨论远程教育的多种概念和方法,即什么是数码世界的远程教育和可替代的新概念。其中的一个结论是:虽然在国家的层面上已设定了宏大目标,但教育组织机构的变化非常缓慢。而在数字传媒文化里长大的年轻?

This article discusses the development of distance education in Sweden in relation to political goals and policies, that is, a top down/domestic/'inside' approach. A bottom up/'outside' approach is also discussed, since education is increasingly globalized and influenced by forces other than national policy. The second part of this article discusses these alternative concepts and approaches to distance education: What is distance education in a digital world and what alternative concepts have been put forward? One conclusion is that while lofty ambitions and goals are being set at the national level, educational organizations are changing only slowly. Young students who have grown up in a digital culture are at the same time very capable, more demanding and selective when they choose their educational path. The pressures on educational organizations are great because of steadily decreasing funding and smaller staff to student ratio. The concluding remarks consist of a comparison between the earliest beginnings of distance education and its current state as well as a discussion of possible future developments in key areas.