Decision Making for Distance Learning Delivery

How do I see the delivery methodology playing a role in my teaching schemata? Will I be using or trying something now that I have not considered before? What do I see as some of the barriers that I might encounter?

When I think about my future as a distance educator I can see myself going into two very different directions, an instructor at an online 6-12 school or a college instructor online. I hope to be able to somehow bridge my current style of teaching with my future style of teaching- although I feel it will be somewhat of a challenge. In my classroom I tend to be a very creative, hands-on, spontaneous teacher. I truly believe the best way for a child to learn is through hands-on activities and real life experiences. That being said- distance education can provide these things but in a much different way.
Depending on which direction I were to go in would definitely sway my method of delivery. If I were to teach at Florida Virtual School (where I recently applied) I would have to take into account that my learner population would be a lot different than a college level course. Students who attend virtual high school have more time for synchronous meetings. Students who are attending college level coursework online, do not always have the time and that is why they have chosen an online course versus a face to face course.
If I were to teach at FLVS I definitely could see myself using many different types of coursework- combining synchronous and asynchronous learning environments. I would definitely like to have meetings once every few weeks with my students, either together in a virtual classroom (like Elluminate) or video conferencing individually with each student. Even though we are working online, I would like to know my students and their personality. I find this especially important when working with younger students. I believe that students who are in this distance education program could find time to do this type of learning as they do not go to "normal" school so they should be able to fit these sort of classroom meetings into their schedules. I would also include interactive games and labs (I'm thinking similar to Froguts.com)
If I were to teach at a college level course I would try to do most of my coursework via asynchronous media. As a current distance education student, I choose this method as a student because I do not have time to attend face-to-face classes. I am a mother to two young children, I have a full-time job, I sponsor the Honor Society, I am a wife, and I also attend graduate classes. For me graduate school would no have been possible if not for distance education. I have not taken classes in my time at USF merely because they require synchronous sessions weekly. It is very hard for me to commit to something because I never know what is going to come up. I believe I will keep this in my mind when/if I become an distance educator and keep the coursework to things via a tool like Blackboard, where students post and discuss with each other online throughout the week.
Obviously with any distance education there are barriers. In the FLVS situation the barriers would be appropriate hardware to support conferencing (web cams), as well as computers that support Elluminate or a program of that caliber. Also, when using a synchronous classroom setting you must take into consideration things like absences of students and have make-up sessions or assignments ready. In the other situation I presented, college instructor- the barrier that I would see was the fact that the class could become stagnant. Discussion boards are only as active as your students are. If you were to have a group of non-responsive individuals it could definitely lack. Also, if you give students a minimum amount of posts on a discussion board then they are not always as thought provoking as you would hope because they know they must post to achieve the grade they want- even if they have nothing to add to the discussion.
Overall, I think a healthy mixture of asynchronous and synchronous delivery methods are the most successful in the online classroom.