Distance Education and Career and Technical Education: A Review of the Research Literature
Chris Zirkle
The Ohio State University
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JVER/v28n2/zirkle.html
Distance education, due to recent technological innovations, can provide almost the same instructional contact and interaction for the student as traditional settings. The growth of distance learning opportunities has allowed students to access courses and degree programs at their convenience. Educational institutions are creating new approaches to course delivery and degree requirements and to improving their programs with new technological tools. These issues have begun to affect career and technical education (CTE) programs, primarily at the postsecondary level.Research studies on distance education have been criticized on a variety of fronts. Research on distance education in CTE is in its beginning stages. To date, there has been no collective analysis of this distance education research in CTE. This research synthesis reviews previous studies on distance education in CTE, organizing them into topical categories. This synthesis highlights the important aspects of these studies and provides recommendations for further research.

Internet-Based Learning in Postsecondary Career and Technical Education
Scott D. Johnson, Angela D. Benson, John Duncan, Olga N. Shinkareva, Gail Diane Taylor, Tod Treat
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JVER/v29n2/johnson.html
This article presents the results of a national study of distance learning in postsecondary career and technical education (CTE). The main purpose of this study was to identify the current status and future trends associated with distance learning in postsecondary CTE. The results show that community colleges are actively involved in the delivery of CTE via distance learning. Internet-based courses are the most prominent form of distance learning in community college CTE programs, especially for credit courses. While some colleges are creating their own online programs, many are partnering with external providers (e.g., commercial vendors) and other colleges and universities to make credit and noncredit CTE courses available to students. It was noted that the community colleges are relying heavily on low-bandwidth technologies, although significant growth in all forms of Internetbased CTE courses and technologies is expected within the next three years.

Distance Education Programming Barriers in Career and Technical Teacher Education in Ohio
Chris Zirkle
The Ohio State University
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JVER/v29n3/zirkle.html
The use of distance education at postsecondary levels continues to grow, including utilization in career and technical teacher education. Despite distance education's "learn anytime, anywhere" approach, there can be significant institutional, faculty/instruction and student/learner barriers to implementation. This study examined the perceptions of one state's career and technical teacher educators with respect to these barriers. The study also sought to determine demographic characteristics of the educational institutions involved in distance education, including the number of distance education courses and programs offered.

PBS Teachersource
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/teachtech/research.shtm
A wealth of information, including numerous research articles on technology integration. Don't miss this one!Blending Face-to-

Face and Distance Learning Methods in Adult and Career-Technical Education
E-learning: Trends and Issues Alert #40
by Susan Imel
http://www.cete.org/acve/docgen.asp?tbl=tia&ID=163

Blended Learning Models
http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/aug2002/valiathan.html
The term blended learning is used to describe a solution that combines several different delivery methods, such as collaboration software, Web-based courses, EPSS, and knowledge management practices. Blended learning also is used to describe learning that mixes various event-based activities, including face-to-face classrooms, live e-learning, and self-paced learning. Unfortunately, there's no single formula that guarantees learning, but here are some guidelines from NIIT on how to order your learning activities

Blend it like Beckham! A white paper
http://www.epic.co.uk/content/resources/white_papers/blended.htm
Blended learning is more than just a temporary stay of execution for the training departments. It represents a profound change of orientation for our whole concept of learning - moving us to a learner-centric approach that is sensitive to the real needs of both learners and the context in which learning takes place. In this ground-breaking new 44-page white paper, Donald Clark, CEO of Epic Group plc, lays out a structure for achieving optimal blends, and identifies the components, criteria, models and tools to be used.

The Eight Key Steps in Blended Learning - by Softskills
http://www.skillsoft.com/infocenter/whitepapers/documents/EightSteps_Paper.pdf
source of employees’ daily learning and are searching for ways to support this informal learning in tandem with their more formalized blended training programs. This paper provides a structure for combining formal and informal learning resources within a blended learning model, by outlining eight steps for blended learning.

Education Using Technologies Effectively in Adult and Vocational Education
http://www.floridatechnet.org/erictechnology.pdf