Distance course. This is what it is

Distance courseare different types of course we could call them new but they have long time working. This type of course takes a different tone of teaching-learning process. Here the student hasto learn in a, mostly, authonomous form because the teacher just works as a facilitator and monitor. This does not mean that the teacher does not work with the students, on the opposite side teacher works more by researching information and excersises for the students learning. Also, teacher must read all work and give proper feedback to each student. As said by Michael Moore the basic idea of distance education is:

              Teachers and students are in different places all or most of the time that they teach or learn.                           Because they are from different places, in order to interact with each other they are dependant on                 some form of communications technology. To use these technologies successfully teahcers must                     know the different desing and messaging techniques that are special to those technologies.To enable               teachers to desing courses and interact with learners through technology, administrators in                             educational and training institutions have to organize their resourses differently from what works for               classroom teaching. (2011, p. 1)

        Here we can see in a more specific form what is the distance course and how it works. Actually in the words of mr. Moore we can understand the responsibility of both teacher and students. We can see how in online education we can understand also what is distance education. We can understand how technology is a very important factor maybe a vital one. It could be hard to develop an online course without having technology or a computer to work with. Computer is the main tools of form of communication between teacher student relationship also between students. Most of the type also there is a big distance between students which makes technology the only form to communicate. Students have the freedom to develop their own comunication using this tools at their will. That is the reason why students and teacher must know technology and must be able to use it efficiently. 

     In my opinion, distance education is a very useful form of teaching and learning. I believe it is not only a form of teaching it could also become a tool for teaching. I have a little experience in online education but it has been a good one. In my experience this form help the student become a more responsable, organized and autonmous student. Those characteristics are the ones he should have before the course but also the ones he can develop and increase. I believe this help us to a lot or at least it has helped me. At the beggining it was hard for me in some courses; but now, I believe I can organize myself better and I can do a good calendar to work in a better way. I don not see it has a hard thing now. I have not a big problem working alone or without a teacher and that is why I think it became easier to me. 

     Distance education is a form that has a lot of sides. We can see good ones or bad ones and everyone is very different. For example,  the freedom student has. Student has a lot of freedom that help him avoid stressful teacher controled situations. Student can develop his own form and style to learn which makes him learn in a more efficient form. This only fact has many advantages, it can help students work at their paste without rushing things or having over stress. Finally, this also helps students that are introverted or shy, not having a teacher or classmates physical presence can help them to express in a better and more free way. Shy student are also usually more autonomous which make them confident in this types of courses.

     On the other hand, this course can have big disadvantages. Actually all the advantages could be seen as disadvantages depending on the perception of people. For example, the freedom can make people lazy and feeling without compromise which can make their learning very hard. Also, without the teacher there students may feel lonely or exposed to a reality by beign all alone, that loneliness can be provoqued not only by the lack of a teacher presence and  also by the lack of his/her classmates. That loneliness can have different consequences like stressful situation, which can also lead to many problems of acquiring meaningful knowledge or any knowledge at all. Finally, this type of learning may affect in a big way students that have a lack of motivation for themselves. When a student can not motivate himself lead to stress and frustration, this may be the biggest disadvantage of online education. Since teacher is away it becomes harder to motivate his students that is why students must be able to motivate himself or have a clear goal and determination to work and learn by themselves. 

       There are many ways we can imrpove online education. There is many aspects to improve but it is not about the form, everything is about hte teacher. The teacher must use this properly to have it work efficiently. Both teacher and students must be in the same channel willing to improve, learn and teach. Both have to be willing to support and understand, in a general way we understand that both teacher and student must have an open mind. We have to understand that distance do not avoid the learning process on the opposite side we can use this to develop more values and knowledges in students.The big aspect or fact is that the teacher must be there to support and motivate students. If one of them is missing all the process could go down and not work. That is, I think, the biggest imrpovement that the distance course could have. If we have a balance between the work of the teacher and the student and we have interest from both sides, distance teaching will be successful all the time. 

Class assessment

Assessment is a fundamental part of the teaching process. In a simple way you could say that there is no teaching process without having an assessment process. Assessing in a course is when the teachers evaluates, process and develop a proper feedback. It is a very important part of the teaching-learning process because it is where, both teacher and student, can see how much the student has learned and what is he lacking of. That way teacher can tell the student and both can modify their strategies to improve the learning of the student. There is something very important when we talk about assessing because there is a big difference between assessing in a classroom and assessing in a distance course. 

Assessing in a classroom is a very simple process. The teacher can see the student work and the way he is working, developing and acquiring knowledge. Also, teacher can make different tests to check the understanding. The important part is that in a in-class course teacher can see the students reactions and see if it is working or not. On the other hand, we have distance course classes, which are just a little bit harder to assess. It is not imposible and some teachers could think it is easier but I think in a different way. We could see the assessment in a distance course as something easier because it is only a matter of checking their homework and evaluating that.But it is important too to think in the process of their work and to try to understand the real meaning behind the words and checking if that is really what they understood and they learned something. That is what I think is the most important part. WE as teachers must learn to identify the style of the students and within their stlyes check their learning is real. As language teacher we have many tools to understand the message within the text. We can use the key in the language to understand what is happening with the writer of the text. We must use those tools to verify that indeed the student is writting with real knowledge.

There are many ways in which we can assess the learner of the students and it is not necessary that we only work with exercises. We can use other tools on the internet, for example we could ask them to give their opinion or their idea of an specific subject and do a forum or a discussion board to work with. Make them change ideas in those boards with the teacher working only as an observer. Teacher should only verify that they are working and solving their doubts. 

A good comunication online

Students in online classes are like any normal kind of student, there are different types but there is something special about them. Instead of having problems of communication between students, we risk to problems with communication between student teacher relationship. Since we have a distance between teacher student and teacher we can see that the approach to each students is very different to a in class student. Students in distance class must be an authonomus student that seeks new knowledge and wants to learn, it doesnt matter if its in class or not, individual or group. That is what a distance learner must be, even though we have students that dont have those characteristics. And since we have different types we have to look at that and be careful with our students. It is the duty of the teacher to identify thestudents even when the course is online or distance.
     
    It is important to see the types of students that we have because there is many problems that could present in the course of a distance course. There are different aspects that could affect a learner, us teachers must be prepared to solve them and help the students to improve and get past any obstacle. For example, while having a distance between teacher and student we can see that the student can feel alone or left aside by the teacher. Another example would be when a student feel that the distance from the teacher make him feel that he cant ask questions to him or approach to him. The learner can feel that the teacher is only there to give work or texts to read. On the other hand, we can have students that feel dependent to the teacher and needs to have reminders, once again that shouldnt be a distance learner but we can have students like those. Those students have trouble on sending work on time or looking for the information in a correct form. Finally, we can have learners that need motivation. Those students are a focal point in our distance courses because it could happen to any learner and that frustrates students, this makes a distance course very hard for those leaerners.

      We as teacher must be able to solve this problems it is our responsibility. There is a very simple way to solve it, and that is called communication. We can use different types of communication to avoid or solve all the problems that we mentioned before. Let´s beggin with the most common type of distance communication. Via e-mail, this type of communication can be very helpful to have a personal communication and talk directly with any learner. With the e-mail we can solve problems as reminders to authority dependent students, and avoid the students feeling lonely. Another communication is using an online plataform, to communicate in a group form letting them learn not only from the teacher but also from another group of learners that want to get the same knowledge that he or she does. This can help him with the loniless feeling, the motivation keeping and the reminders for the dependent students. And finally a distance course could be balanced with in class meetings to improve the communcation, confidence and, in general, the whole relationship between students and teacher online. Having some meeting would help avoid the problems mentioned before talking about all of them. Having a good relationship like this will make the learners more open to a course like this and making it much easier to the learners. These three types of communications are the best we could use to improve a good communication student teacher. Why? Because using all three learners will know that the teacher is intereseted on them and want to help them to get a knowledge from themselves instead of making it all as easy as giving them everything. Learner will understand that us teachers are not gone or that far, that we are always there but in a different way. They will understand that it is very similar to an in class course just having the computer and the web as tools for communication and learning.

     I believe that there can be many problems in a distance course, but, there is nothing that cant be solved. As I mentioned before it is all about communication because people with words can understand better. We can avoid every problem or solve it talking and explaining with detail. We must remember that the students have the right to know what we know. Also, they have the ability to understand so we must trust them and give them clear explanation to make a good relationship and avoid any obstacle for the learning process of the student. As I said at the beginning we have to identify the kind of learners that we have even if it is a distance course. Doing that can help us find a better solution to any type of problem in the present and even to solve the ones in the future. This is what makes everything easier and a more efficient learning for the students which is our final goal.

Online education

Online education is a very useful system of education that help both student and teacher to develop more competent profesionals. There are many aspects to see nad take into acount to make it work in a effective way. In the next presentation we are going to see what teachers and learners must see to have a good online education and how does it help o everybody. 

https://docs.google.com/a/uabc.edu.mx/presentation/d/1_RVSV-wH3UF5tXtypLFn67Z35skfekkVKxhKVa5MvbU/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

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.