E-mail, word processing programs, and presentation software such as PowerPoint are often used to deliver material and interact in distance education. Over the past several years, additional technologies, web-based technologies, have been adopted to increase collaboration and interaction. Although there are many, several of the most popular warrant mentioning and defining here:

Course Management Systems or Learning Management systems - Course management systems (CMS), such as Blackboard ^TM, Angel Learning, Sakai, and Moodle, are computer software programs that facilitate the delivery of online training and dissemination of course content (Comeaux & McKenna-Byngton, 2003) and are the most commonly used technology in the online higher education environment.

Podcasts and Vodcasts- Podcasts and vodcasts enable delivery of content to students in the form of both audio and video. Derived from Apple's iPod and broadcasting network, podcasting is "[t]he process of capturing an audio event, song, speech, or mix of sounds and then posting that digital sound object to a Web site or a blog" (Meng, 2005, p. 1). Vodcasting (Video-On-Demand) is essentially podcasting with the addition of video. Inclusion of these technologies, as well as the weblog and wikis, which will be discussed next, may serve to increase students' sense of teaching presence and social presence (Seitzinger, 2006).

Weblogs and Wikis - Weblogs or blogs are easy-to-use customized web pages in which entries are logged in a chronologically reversed order (Herring, Scheidt, Bonus, & Wright, 2004). Blogs are personal pages, whereas wikis are communally created. A wiki is a website in which any individual can add and edit information without administrative access rights. The most popular example is Wikipedia.

Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE) - A MUVE transforms the two dimensional e- learning platform into a three dimensional virtual learning environment and facilitates asynchronous and synchronous interaction among the students and the educator. For the purpose of this discussion, one of the most popular MUVEs, Second Life (SL) ^®, is utilized.

For an example of how these technologies can be integrated into a distance education course and be used to facilitate learning, go to the library and find the following article: Rockinson-Szapkiw, A. J. & Walker, V. (2009). Web 2.0: Facilitating interactivity and collaborative relationships in an online human service counseling skills course. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 27(3), 175-193. Or Walker, V. & Rockinson-Szapkiw, A. J. (2009). Educational opportunities for clinical counseling simulations in Second Life. Innovate 5(5). http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=711.