George Siemens has steadily increased his voice in the world of distance education since the publication of his theory of Connectivism in December of 2004. My recent experience of him was in a video produced for Walden University on the future of distance education (Siemens, 2008). While a thoroughly discussed topic, Mr. Siemens once again demonstrates there is still plenty of room for innovation and insight. In the video program, he highlights three unique characteristics of eLearning that will help formulate its future: connectivity at the individual level, global diversity, and collaborative innovation.
While all three of these are a part of distance education, the aspect of collaboration is most intriguing to me. Our connection to global diversity would be for naught if we could not collaborate with each other. Certainly, humans have been doing just that for millennia. We created family groups, then communities, then villages, then cities … you get the idea … all of which required collaboration. Of the multitude of definitions, "collaboration [as] a recursive process where two or more people work together toward an intersection of common goals … by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus" reflects what I imagine our earliest ancestors must have done to survive, and what we must continue to do now ("Collaboration", n.d.). (Ironic that it was created on Wikipedia, ostensibly the most successful example of collaboration on the net.) Our ancestors' goal was survival; our goals are increasingly complex, requiring increasingly diverse methods of connection. Our means of collaboration have grown with that complexity; now today, there are an overwhelming number of collaborative opportunities (screen share, co-browsing, web conferencing, video conferencing, VOIP, file sharing, collaborative reviewing, event scheduling, and mind-mapping) (Karrer, 2008).
In relation to eLearning, collaboration has been written about in numerous blogs, journals, and dissertations. A search for "collaboration eLearning" on Google Scholar returns about 24,000 items. A search just in Google returns about 5,420,000 items. Mr. Siemens has compiled a nice list of learning and technology blogs for review. From a technology perspective, Dr. Tony Karrer's blog, eLearning Technology, is a wealth of information on the development of these innovations. His recent post on this very topic includes a mind map of these tools created collaboratively by professionals and amateurs alike. most prevalent for education are screen-sharing/conferencing (i.e. GoToMeeting, WebEx, Adobe Connect), content management systems (i.e. Blackboard, Moodle, Angel), wikis (i.e. Wikispaces, MediaWiki, PBwiki), and chat (i.e. Skype, LiveMessenger, AIM).
To reach out and engage the global community, we will need to utilize these technologies, and develop learning theories like connectivism that support their enhanced capabilities to foster community and education.
References
Collaboration. (n.d.). Retrieved December 23, 2008, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration
Karrer, T. (2008, December 2). Collaboration Tools: eLearning Technology. Message December 23, 2008, posted to eLearning Technology: http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2008/12/collaboration-tools.html
Siemens, G. (Speaker). (2008). The future of distance education [Video]. Video December 19, 2008, posted to Walden University Web site: http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=3206859&Survey=1&47=4198219&ClientNodeID=984645&coursenav=1&bhcp=1
Distance education, to the surprise of some, has been around for the better part of 150 years (
evolution may be underneath technology, in the dirty underbelly of educational theory and instructional design (Moller et al., 2008, Simonson, 2008).
Moller, Huett, Foshay, and Coleman (2008) recently collaborated on a series of three articles published in 
designers, creating curriculum for distance education through leveraging the "craft" of traditional education. A tradition that, in many cases, was not effective to begin with (Moller et al, 2008). The result is courses lacking quality needs assessments, effective learning models, and a connection to recent research. These courses lead to increased student disillusionment, not just for their courses, but also for distance education as a whole. Moller et al., in their final installment, call for all eLearning professionals to collaborate, and begin "the hard work of building a cumulative and unified base of knowledge for e-learning and the field of instructional design" (Huett et al., 2008, p. 66).
At the point where the fingers meet the keyboard, Moller et al. (2008) have a thorough and practical analysis of distance education's difficult situation. They make it clear to see why instructional design must evolve to meet the needs of diverse online learners, and fill the gap between the number of trained instructional designers and the demand for new courses. As presented, Dr. Simonson's theory of equivalency is relevant, though not motivating. It will not stir the professional masses to begin the "hard work" Moller et al. emphasize, and the industry needs. I agree with Moller et al. (2008). It is time to stop dragging our collective knuckles and persisting with research and analysis that only compares distance education to traditional delivery. It is time for researchers to focus on 
maturing and evolving distance education in its own right. It is time for distance education to stand up on its own, assuming responsibility for its place and potential in academia.