A Critical Look at Educational Technology from a Distance Education Perspective - Terry Anderson and Pablo Rivera-Vargas

Oct 15, 2026

This paper examines educational technology in fully distance-education programs and institutions, emphasizing how 21st-century digital education is driven by networking and ongoing creation, editing, and retrieval of text and images. It highlights distance education’s mediated interactions as an intensified form of digitalization. Through theoretical and interpretative analysis of distance-education literature, the study identifies critical dimensions—limitations, shortcomings, and future challenges—showing that initial promises of digital technologies have not yet fully materialized in practice.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Two macro models of university education

Face-to-face education

Distance education

Four contexts of distance education

A critical look at Educational Technology Distance Education Perspective A Critical look at Educational Technology from a Distance Education Perspective Terry Anderson terrya@athabascau.ca Athabasca University, Canada Pablo Rivera-Vargas [pablorivera@ub.edu](pablorivera@ub.edu) Universitat de Barcelona, España Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile Abstract This article focuses on educational technology as applied in the context of programs and institutions that offer completely distance education courses . All education in the 21st century is digital education in that the use of networking, text and image creation and editing and search and retrieval of information punctuates the life of almost every teacher and student. However, the context of distance education – where all the interactions are mediated, creates a unique and heightened context of digitalization . This paper focuses on two questions: (1) What aspects have not been completely satisfactory in the transit and transformation that education has undergone, from its more traditional, campus-based conception, towards its new configuration marked by the continuous use of digital technologies and environments? (2) What are the future challenges that distance education must deal with to support sustainability of this teaching model? From a theoretical and interpretative analysis, based on the review of relevant articles and documents on distance education, some critical dimensions (limitations, shortcomings and future challenges) the use of digital technologies in distance education is identified and subsequently analyzed. These dimensions evidence how the initial (sometimes excessive) promises of digital technologies in distance education has not (yet) been fully reflected in reality. Keywords Distance education; online education; learning analytics; educational technology; threaded discussion 208 T.Anderson & P.Rivera-Vargas Digital Education Review-Number 37, June 2020-[http://greav.ub.edu/der/](http://greav.ub.edu/der/) I. Introduction The great changes that the society has experienced in recent times, from its original traditional configuration, to the current postmodern dynamic, have transformed all forms of education in multiple ways-and higher education is not an exception . During much of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, we have been able to recognize two macro models of university education: face-to-face, or campus-based education and distance education . The extensive literature from this field of study allows us to recognize the main characteristics, objectives and practices of both models of education (Bates, 2005; Fallon & Brown, 2016) . When we talk about face-to-face education, we refer to the traditional teaching model that takes place in a physical classroom . This physical proximity between teacher and student can favor interaction and communication between and among students and teacher . However, it has also been associated with restrictions of both geographic and temporal access . Digital tools have been gradually incorporated into the teaching experience, although they tend to be used basically as didactic support (Gaebel, Kupriyanova, Morais, et al., 2014) to in person communications and access to content. Distance education, is a teaching model that is usually asynchronous and always distributed. That is, there is no need to attend classes in a specific physical environment and usually not at a particular time . The student receives and accesses the content to engage with their studies, then completes and transmits evaluation and often collaborative activities, and can ask their teacher questions through mediated means: initially by traditional mail, telephone, fax, and during the last decades, through various online tools (Alfonso, 2003; Sangrà, Vlachopoulus & Cabrera, 2012) . Literature has allowed us to identify four contexts of distance education (Bates, 2005; García, 2009; Sangrà, Vlacho

FAQs

What is the paper’s main focus regarding educational technology?

It examines how educational technology operates within programs and institutions offering completely distance education courses, considering how digital tools shape teaching and learning under mediated interaction.

How does distance education differ from traditional face-to-face education in this article?

Face-to-face education relies on physical classroom proximity and supports interaction, while distance education is usually asynchronous, distributed, and interaction occurs through mediated communication methods.

What research questions does the paper address?

It asks which aspects of education have remained unsatisfactory during the transition from traditional campus-based formats to digitally mediated environments, and what future challenges distance education must address to sustain this teaching model.

Oct 15, 2026

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