Keeping up with the Demand

This past week, I benefitted from the participation of distinguished visiting scholar, Alan Tait, in my Foundations of Distance Education and E-Learning. Professor Tait shared with me his experiences in the realm of DE and non-native language distance learners and I shared with him the seeming lack of research in this area given that since in August 2014, the U.S. Department of Education reported that for the first time student enrollment in the public school systems would reach a minority-majortiy (i.e., more non-whites than whites). While much of the growth has been attributed to the number of Hispanic and Asian school-age children that were born in the U.S. That seven-in-ten school age children in our growing immigrant popoulation are non-native learners doesn't bode well for opportunities in DE learning if attention is not given to developing the necessary resources and supports.