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.