eLearning Papers 24 www.elearningpapers.eu eLearning Papers ��� ISSN: 1887-1542 ��� www.elearningpapers.eu n.�� 24 ��� April 2011 1 From the field Distance education, globalization, eLearning, mLearning, Turkey, Eastern Europe Tags Author Ugur Demiray PhD, Anadolu University, Eskisehir udemiray33@gmail.com Distance education and eLearning practices: In Turkey and Eastern countries This study presents a socio-policital and historical review of the introduction of distance and elearning practices in Turkey and in Eastern Europe and discusses the challenges and opportunities posed by the growing presence of ICT in an increasingly globalized higher education environment. The work makes a significant contribution, in English, to the state of the art of elearning and distance education in Eastern European countries. 1. Introduction to distance education Distance education can be defined or called together with many the other concepts such as, ���wellness education, open learning, open teach- ing, non-traditional education, distance learning, distance teaching, correspondence education, independent study, home study, distance teaching at a distance, extension study, external study, external learning, flexible education, flexible learning, life long education, lifelong learning, contract learning, experiential learning, directed private study, drop-in learning, independent learning, individualized learning, resource-based learning, self-access learning, self-study, supported self-study or continuing education��� etc in the literature de- fined by different authors. In this chapter distance education will named in the name any form of the concept which motioned up such as open learning or distance learning or dis- tance education etc. What-ever it calls that in this chapter all of it will use in the meaning of distance education. This concept is placed detail in the Keegan���s book is named as Foundations of Distance Edu- cation. Here will summarize his chapter dealing with concept and definitions of the distance education as can we do. We will use distance education as being a generic term of the field of education, as he said. Whatever distance education calls, mentioned above and on dis- cussions in the literature. It can be describe as: ���distance education��� is a generic term that includes the range of teaching/learning strategies referred to as correspondence education or correspondence study at further education level in the United Kingdom as home study further education and independent study at higher educational in the United States as ex- ternal studies in Australia and as a distance teaching or te-aching at a distance in the United Kingdom by the Open University. In French it is referred to as Teleenseignement Fernstu- dium/Fernunterricht in German education a distanica in Spanish and teleducacao in Portu- guese. This description lists the major terms used by distance education institutions in the English-speaking world and gives parallel terms for the major European languages. Distance education subsumes a number of existing terms but not all are synonymous. (Keegan, 1990, p. 28-29) These terms have a long history in the education of children and adult at a distance. They still have their supporters who claim that nearly all distance education is still organized through

eLearning Papers 24 www.elearningpapers.eu eLearning Papers ��� ISSN: 1887-1542 ��� www.elearningpapers.eu n.�� 24 ��� April 2011 2 From the field the post and that both the public and prospective students rec- ognize the terms. ���Correspondence education��� is defined in the UNESCO volume Terminology of Adult Education as: Education conducted by postal services without face-to-face between teacher and learner. Teaching is done by written or tape-recorded materials through written or taped exercises to the teacher, who corrects them and returns them to the learner with criticisms and advice (Quoted from UNESCO, 1979 by Keegan, 1990, p. 29). The main problem with the terms of correspondence education that it can not encom- pass the didactic potential of this form of education in 1980s and beyond: print, audio, video and computer based possi- bilities must be reflected by the terminology chosen. Another problem is that critics of the term tend to associate ���corre- spondence education and ���correspondence study��� with the some of the less successful aspects of distance education in the past and to feel that these terms contribute to the still questioned status of study at a distance in many countries. Even when distance education is print-based the term ���cor- respondence education��� is inadequate to describe courses by newspaper or systems with no postal component. A term is, however, need to designate the postal subgroup of the print based forms of distance education in which student contact is not encouraged. It seems suitable to reserve the term ���cor- respondence education��� for this purpose. History of the distance education terminology based the terms which are can be listed as home study, independent study, external study and distance teaching at a distance etc. Home study concept is explained in Keegan���s study as: Communication theory experts tell us that word grows tired and if they do, then ���correspondence study��� is a tired word. It is significant that as early as 1926 when the directors of the correspondence schools of the United States came together to form an association, the title chosen was the National Home Study Council and not the National Correspondence Study Council. ���Home Study���, howev- er, has little claim to being an overall term as it is used mainly in the United States and is there confined to further education (technical and vocationally oriented institutions) and not higher education (universities and university-oriented colleges). In ad- dition, the distance student may not, in fact, study at home or may study in part at home and in part at other centers (Keegan, 1990, p. 30). A related concept is independent study. The students are sepa- rated from the teacher place great emphasis on the former���s ability to study on own imitative. Independent study is defined as fallows: Independent study, consists of various forms of teaching or learning arrangements in which teachers and learn- ers carry out their essential task and responsibilities apart from one another, communicating in a variety of ways for the pur- pose of freeing internal learners from inappropriate class pacing or patterns, of providing external learners with opportunities to continue learning in their own environments, and of developing in all learners the capacity to carry on self-directed learning, by Charles Wedemeyer in his study which is titled as independent Study, published in 1971. According to Wedemeyer���s definitions still involves an element of communication between teacher and learner at some point in the process. As such it is related to concept of distance education which stresses the independent self-pacing nature of the student���s learning. It is not enough to say that independent study is learning on one���s own without establish the context within which a student exercises his or her independence. Total independence takes one into areas cov- ered by, for example teaching-yourself books and educational broadcasting in which the element of two-way communica- tions essential in distance teaching is absent (Rumble and Harry, 1982, p. 13). In case of being unable to provide in-classroom activities within the boundaries of traditional learning-teaching methods, the educational activities are sustained through special teaching units and various media that are utilized for interaction and communication between the planners and the students from a certain center. This is called distance education. Even if the con- cept of distance education was uttered in 1700���s the first actual application was recognized to be realized by Isaac Pitman in the year of 1840 in England. After this first application of distance education it was begun in several other countries as follows: Germany (in 1856), USA (in 1877), Sweden (in 1889), Australia (in 1910), New Zealand (in 1922), Turkey (in 1956), Poland (in 1966), and Spain (in 1972). In this context, history of distance education can be discussed generally in five clear periods. These periods are can be listed as: ��� A period of before correspondence education. Some educa- tional activities which are try to aiding for lack of education process before constructing and establishing correspond- ence education systems. ��� Heavily applied correspondence education systems period. Correspondence education systems widely used printed