Different intelligences and the distance class.

A distance class is something completely new and different for me but I like it and is not that hard. I believe that my ability to keep my self concentrated with or without people is what help me. Also, I think that I have a good control of my emotions and that help me to avoid my organization and my order of priorities. In this case, I infer that I have a good organization ability but I don not feel that I am completely autonomous. I have a problem to decide myself to begin something, I can organize in a good way and make them accurate but I am indecisive or hesitative when beginning the work. I feel that in distance courses the student can feel lonely because it happened to my but it is only in the beginning until you get used to this new form.

I believe that any student can be effective in a distance course if they commit themselves to work in a responsible way. It is all about commitment to themselves to get more knowledge during the course. Also, in order to get a efficient distance class, we need a teacher that motivates in a correct form and help them commit in a comfortable manner. If the student get motivated he will not feel alone at any time and will be able to work comfortable and that will make him more efficient in his/her learning process.

Finally, in my experience a student must find the way to encourage himself and not to be hesitant. Having a good organization and compromise with the class will help him develop a good learning of his own. Also, as I said before, teacher should show the students that he is there and show them how approachable he can be. That way students will feel the motivation to make all their work, knowing they are not alone.

Systems of education

The education can be made in different ways, could be with or without a teacher being close the thing is to help the student have a meaningful learning. We have two kinds of learning types when we talk about form. We have in class education and distance education. First we have the in class education which is the normal kind of education or at least the one we are used to. In class education is the mode where the teacher and student meet in classroom and the teacher uses different techniques to teach in a direct way. On the other hand we have distance education, in this kind we can see that the teacher also is there for the student but he is there as a tutor and facilitator. Teacher must motivate and enhance the student to learn on his own and be autonomous.

It is true that this kinds of education are very different, there is a big amount of differences especially because the distance education is a relatively new education system. The obvious difference is that the students has more freedom and responsibility in the learning progress. While in the in class education the student has the teacher giving him constant limitations and instructions, on the distance education student can choose when to do his work and how to do it. The role of the teacher also changes in a big way, in class he has to fulfill many responsibilities in his different roles, many roles. On the other hand in distance education he still have a lot of work because he has to do investigations and develop activities to keep the process of teaching-learning active. The biggest difference may be the kind of activities the students must realize in this two systems. While in the class teacher can listen and understand the knowledge being brought by the teacher and then work in fill in the blank, questionnaires, etc. On the distance education student must build up his own knowledge by reading texts given by the teacher or by looking up information in different resources. Also, students change their regular interaction with other students. Students change completely their relationship with teacher and group in distance in education because they are not close to him/her as he was used to. Student is now “alone” in his learning. This way we can see that this systems of education affect both student and teacher.

After seeing the differences we immediately think which one is better? Or what is good in one and what is good about the other? Which one should I use? This are very good questions because they are both very useful and good to learn. Both systems have different advantages and disadvantages. For example, when we talk about distance education we can think about the freedom and responsibility which make the students think in a deeper way and make him start thinking in a more mature way. Of course, this could either help or hurt, if the student is very immature it will affect directly his grade and the knowledge he acquires. This would depend on the kind of messages the teacher gives as well as the kind of motivation he gives. Also, this system can help introverted students to work in a more comfortable way and it does not affect extroverted students. Students that are introverted do not have to be stressed about talking in front of the whole class and could actually do it but with a camera which could be easier for them. Finally, this system could help students develop new ways to study in a more efficient and comfortable way that helps their own type of learning. Although, we have to be very careful with the freedom and motivation we give to students because if we give them too much freedom they will not learn and we do not motivate them they will get stressed and frustrated because of that lack of learning.

We can see that there is big differences in this two systems but they are both good for the students learning process. We could use as an example the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC) where they use both systems and the actually mix them. In this university they have as objective to make autonomous students that are competent enough to learn by themselves and work in different aspects and environments. That is why we can be sure that these systems work in a terrific way. In my opinion, we have to open our mind to try new systems, kinds or types of teaching to see which can help us the most. Also, we should use them because they could help us develop different things and that would make us even more competent and that will help us have a more complete knowledge and would make us even better professionals.

Reflection, In class vs virtual class

I believe that the change from an indoor classroom is a big one and can be difficult for some students. We can see that it can be hard because is a very different way of teaching. First of all, student must forget about the teacher being there to remind them what they should; but, teacher is only gone in presence because he is still there for questions. I believe that the biggest problem in this step is that we are used to have an in-class teaching method. Since virtual classes are a relatively new method and we are still learning. Also, making this step involve a complete autonomous learning. Students must learn to be responsible and organized to make all activities and learn in a meaningful way. Sometimes or many times, students think that a virtual class is just about doing activities and they forget about learning something, that happens because we are still learning to take full advantage of all the options we have. I believe that a virtual class can change our whole view of what learning is and makes us independent. I dont mean to be redundant but that is my main idea, we must learn to use a virtual class and what does it involve to get a real knowledge out of it. How can we learn to use it? With real practice and actually taking it. The best way to real, for me, is a real practice and being in a real situation, making mistakes and learning from them. As we saw before, we are learning so we are allowed to make mistakes and there should be no problem at all. We can use this type of class as a very useful tool to teach students to take care of themselves. Of course, it is a two sides weapon because we don't want them to forget about this. We as teachers should explain in a concrete manner what we expect from them and give them the freedom to work but not giving them away everything. If we don't have the possibility to see them physically we can send emails to remind them in a personal way. If we do so they'll know we are there for them and we are  checking them so the are going to be evaluated and we are interested in their learning. That way, we motivate them to work, we don't damage their grade and they still learn what they should and a little extra. Finally, I think that this way students will see virtual classes as simple and new classes instead of seeing them just as online homework with no teacher.