The online education magazine eSchool News recently asked its readers what were the most important technology skills for students to know in the modern era (Stansbury, 2012). This series will look more closely at the skills that were identified and their relationship to online education.

The final skills identified by the survey, adaptability and courage, are interrelated just as are online literacy and critical thinking. These skills, however, stretch the imagination of the user and the boundaries of technology. While adaptability stretches the imagination of the user with the notion of initiative and creativity in mastering the use of technology in whatever form it appears, courage pushes the boundaries of technology itself by considering the ability to use a technology for something other than its intended purpose. The former idea is rooted in the notion that most technologies designed for a given purpose have some common elements. Master the common elements, and mastering the other changes in the technology becomes simple. The latter of these ideas is much like finding a new use for a prescription drug because of a positive side effect identified in testing; it pushes the boundaries of the product opening new horizons for its use in other areas.

The connection to distance education is relatively clear as with critical thinking or online literacy. Because technology changes so quickly, students in distance education programs will be well served to develop a sense of adaptability around technology. Learning management platforms will change, but the general contents of those platforms will not change. There will, for example, still be learning content (though possibly in highly interactive form), independent practice, and checks for understanding. There will likely still be a teacher in the equation somewhere until all learners become independent learners and no longer need the motivation or input of the learned instructor. Courage will come into view as learners and educators alike begin to fearlessly explore beyond the boundaries of the intended uses of a technology to determine what else might be accomplished by that technology. For example, I served in an online high school that declared its curriculum to be designed for the average to above average student. However, while working with a group of at-risk youth, my colleagues and I quickly learned that the curriculum software afforded us amazing flexibility to remediate the gaps in these young people's education. By exercising a little courage, we were able to manipulate the technology to make it a bold tool to bring under-performing kids up to grade level in an incredibly short amount of time. Modern learners and teachers will do well to exercise some courage and to push the boundaries of technology.

Thinking back across this series, there are some distinct connections of the desired skills to distance education. We as distance educators will do well to train our learners in online literacy, critical thinking, the science behind the technology, adaptability, and courage. To do so, we as distance educators will have to be courageous and adaptive. We will have to stretch our imaginations as technology users and press the boundaries of the technologies themselves molding their intended uses into new applications for the good of our students.

                                                                                              Reference

Stansbury, M. (2012). Five technology skills every student should learn. eSchool News. Retrieved from http://www.eschoolnews.com/2012/09/04/five-technology-skills-every-student-should-learn/.