Reflections on a Career in Distance Education

Abstract

Reflections on a Career in Distance Education, Sir John Daniel, Commonwealth of Learning, January 2007 // I found distance education whilst seeking something else. My first real job, after a long, conventional and highly specialised education, was an assistant professorship of Metallurgical Engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique (Université de Montréal). Fate appeared to have made me a university teacher so I thought I ought to develop some professionalism in my new métier by undertaking formal study of education. // Before I realised that this was an unusual - even a perverse - reflex for a young engineering academic, I had enrolled in a Master's programme in Educational Technology at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University). I had little idea what educational technology was but swallowed my scepticism because it was the only programme in Montreal with 'education' in the title that could be studied part time and appeared to offer some intellectual challenge.