Unit 2 Goal 2.1 Distance education and Multiple Intelligences

Being a distance student can be difficult for those students who are not aware of their learning intelligence style, because it would be hard to know how to guide themselves and focus on what and how they really need to learn. In my experience, it has been hard working in distance courses, because I like to communicate and I find it difficult to interact with my classmates and teacher in this modality. However, I have kept optimistic and just keep on trying to follow instructions carefully. Therefore, I think that it is very important to remain optimistic and try to enrole as much as possible in the course so we could maintain motivated though all the course. In the other hand, I find it easy to organize and prioritize my activities and I always stick to my time schedule to achieve all the goals I set at the beginning and throughout the whole course. 

Although I am linguistic and social, I like to work autonomously and I guess here is where my interpersonal strength shows up, which sometimes I see it as a strength because I can find my way by working alone and I do not have to be pushed around to accomplish my assignments. But, when it comes to work in teams, I find it a little bit difficult to mediate the way I work and adapt to other people’s way to work and that’s when I see it as a weakness. Even though I like being autonomous, I have felt alone and in some way lost in a distance course, specially when I have doubts and the time to clear all those questions takes a little bit longer then when attending a face-to-face course. However, I have come to develop my skills on internet researches to investigate and come up with a solution to my questions and or problems.  

I think that in order to succeed in a distance course, one must be organized, autonomous, but at the same time has to be willing to participate in distance group discussions to enrich and complement their cognitive skills. As future teachers, we need to find ways to help students to enrich this kind of communication  exchange. Students also need to prioritize their goals and of course plan their activities, They also need to communicate effectively.  

If I have to come up with two constructive solutions to contribute to help a student complete a distance course, those solutions would be: 

-To take advantage of all devices they have and of course to learn how to use the internet in an effectively way. That way, students would not get discouraged when they do not understand something, they would pursue their goal by researching and constructing their own knowledge. Here I would like to mention that when I say use the internet I don’t mean wikipedia or such paces, but online libraries, ibooks, online magazines and even other online schools that provide useful information and access to lots of interesting articles. 

- To keep motivated. And I think the best way of keeping motivated is creating a list at the beginning of the course with all the expectations from the course and goals they want to achieve, that way it would be easy to keep track of their own progress. Another way to keep motivated could be interacting with our classmates, and encouraging each other with good and positive feedback.  

Ideas of Open and Distance Education

When it comes to education, it is necessary to take into consideration our necessities and our possibilities as well. Nowadays, open and distance education offer a broad variety of different courses available for different types of people. However, it is necessary to understand what both distance and open education have to offer. it is important to review their advantages, disadvantages, and of course the accessibility they offer to our lifestyle. 

In te first place, we have the advantages of open and distance education, and some of them are: 

-Autonomy: both distance and open education provide the student the tools and environment to create autonomous students, since they decide how, when and what to learn. They decide wether to focus in one specific subject they are struggling with or they just review the ones they feel confident about.

-Time problems: In here, the student overcomes time and schedule problems, since he is able to arrange his own time to study or schedule in the way he wants to distribute his time for studying. 

-Expanding the number of students in a course: Distance education provides the chance to expand the number of students in a course, since they do not have to be gathered in a classroom at the same time. 

-It also provides the chance to work with a variety of people that might have different opinions, ideas, even ages, political views, since they are in different geographical places. 

-It also provides the tools to learn to communicate since we need to get across the spacial barrier, we need to communicate in both open and distance education in order to get our message across other people. 

In the second place, we need to think about the disadvantages of both open and distance education, here we find that some of them are: 

-The lack of face-to-face contact is another disadvantage, mainly because teachers do not have the chance to keep eye contact and in some way get to know their student's weaknesses or to know if the student is struggling with something, unless the student communicates the problem. 

-Demotivation: the fact that since there is not much social interaction some students may get discouraged on eventually drop off the course could be a major disadvantage. 

-Since both systems of education provide the student with autonomy to work on their own, there is a possibility that students may lose the sense of working in teams, or not be interested in social interaction. 

-Not everyone can be a candidate to take an open or distance course: here it is important to mention that when planing to take an open or distance course, it is important to face the fact of how capable we are to deal with the course. Since there are people who just can’t deal with all the disadvantages, or simply they are not ready for the responsibility that brings an open or distance class. 

Lastly, it is necessary to examine the accessibility that we have to take an open or distance class. Even though it is said that both modalities are accesibles specially when it comes to monetary issues, it is true that for example, in order to complete some tasks of distance education, it is necessary to have access to internet, platforms, forums, and some type of technology, that in some extreme cases, students are unable to have access to. However, nowadays, there are many other options to have access to all that kind of technology, even some schools provide access to computers and even internet in their campuses. Another aspect to contemplate is how much are we willing to cooperate with the classes and how much effort we are able to put into the course, since as we mentioned above, both modalities focus in the autonomy of the students. 

In conclusion, open and distance education, are an option when it comes to continue with education. However, it is important to scrutinize if we are eligible students to succeed the course. It is not true that only because we have the freedom to decido how or what we want learn, the course would be easy and we would not need to put any effort in achieving the goals required. All the contrary, deciding to take an open or distance course, requires dedication, time and effort justa as any other type of education. 

 Distance and Open Education 

  

 Professor Bernard Spodek describes open education as an open system of thought, one that is constantly being modified… However, the concept of open education is quite vague, mainly because it’s being used as a slogan or concept depending on how it is used. According to professor Spodek’s definition, open can find that the term might be overlapping with other definitions. In the other hand, the author, David Nyberg, proposed that open education is that form of educational practice which is characteristically regulated by some Of the following rules: 

-Students are to pursue educational activities of their own choosing. Yet, it does not give the student the freedom to do whatever they want, but it suggests that students may pursue any educational activity of their choose.

-Teachers are to create an environment rich in educational possibilities. Creating with this the ideal environment for students activities. This rule provide the teacher the chance to help students in their pursue of educational activities. 

-Teachers are to give students individualized instruction based on what they are interested in, but teachers are also to guide the student along educationally worthwhile lines. Here the teacher should focus on what the students are interested in without losing the purpose of the class. It also includes the guide of the teacher and their judgment in the interests of the student. 

-Teachers are to respect students, considering: 

 -Student’s autonomy

 -Students interests and ideas

 -Students and teachers are equal in some sense

 -A minimum use of authority

 -Students feelings

It is important to point out that to define open education is to define a program for action, which means that each program is unique, because they have different norms. Therefore, the notion of open education is still in the process of being defined. 

Advantages	Disadvantages
-Ss have the freedom to learn at their own pace.	-Makes communication difficult between Ts and Ss
-Ss have control in the way they learn	-Group work is hard to accomplish due suitable times
-Ss control the content and they can emphasis in what they need to learn	-It can lead to delays in the learning process.
-Ss have complete control of their goals and evaluate their learning	-For Ts it is imposible to make casual oversight of learning progress.
-Ts are able to call for deep thinking	-It makes difficult the relationship between Ss and Ts
-Ts can use different resources that are unavailable in the classroom	-Inhibits corporate activity
-Ss can become independent and effective learners

Personal Definition

   

Open education: 

It is not easy to describe in my own words open education, because it doesn’t have a concrete definition itself. However, open education represents the way in which teachers along with institutions, execute the teaching process, always taking the students into consideration.

 Distance education: 

This concept i found it a little bit easier to explain, because it relates to a type or branch of education in which the student and the teacher are linked, but they can be situated in a different geographical position. This type of education also relates to the use of different material, devices, and criteria to achieve the learning process, such as platforms, online forums, ibooks, chats, email, or even conventional mail. 

Comparison Between Distance and Presential Education

Talking about presential classes can be easily related to traditional education, and therefore we might think of it as the better option related to education. However, lately the term distance education has cough people’s attention, mainly because of its accessibility. But, are we really aware of what this two terms really are? To understand this, it is important to compare them both. Here, we have that both terms have certain similarities: time and place, strategies and procedures, and learning.  

  First of all, distance and presential education  resemble the similarity of time and place. With both modalities one spends time, the difference is that in the traditional way one gathers in a classroom at the same time and place, while in distance classes one may have the option to work in each and every task they are ask to accomplish in a different time. They also have in common a geographical space, but again, it can be totally different geographical space. While traditional education occurs in a classroom, distance education can be made not only online, but trough the mail, book, audiobooks, etc. No matter where the student is located, as long as they want to study. Here is important to mention the accessibility, while presential education may limit their accessibility to a certain number of students, distance education has the option to provide more accessibility when talking bout space, time and place. 

  Second of all, among other similarities, distance and presential classes have similar strategies and procedures, but they both are very different. Distance classes should be carefully designed and developed before instructions begin, focusing and encouraging the student’s autonomy keeping in mind the students capabilities. Presential classes are meant to have a guide to lead the classroom and help the students to achieve the goal in an effective way. In other words, both modalities require the willingness to get things done; the difference is the procedure in which students get to reach the goal. While in the presential class the teacher might guide their students to the desired goal, in the distance class the student will have to take the lead in whatever he wants to achieve. 

 Finally,  distance and presential education have a related learning process. However, it is achieved differently. While presential education may offer the advantages of having a guide, distance education will offer the chance to share feedback and learn from each other in a healthy way in which students may enrich their knowledge and contribute to each other learning. It is important to mention that even though it sounds easy to take a distance class, not all students are meant to be distance students. Specially if do not have the skills, independency and willingness to built their own knowledge, share and give feedback.

Teaching and Learning  at a distance

Foundations of distance education 

Fourth Edition

Michale Simonson

Sharon Smaldino

Michael Albright

Susan Svacek