In the past, I considered a traditional classroom where face-to-face method of teaching the best strategy of conducting education. As a daughter of a diplomat, I had the opportunity to study in the best schools in various countries. Later in life around 10 years old, due to the nature of my parents’ work, I was home schooled for a few years and later sent to a rigid boarding school for girls. In these years, I enjoyed home schooling very much because of the flexibility and the creativity it allowed me to work on projects. When I started tertiary studies, I was initially lost due to the independent set up of classes in the university. Several years later when I had an excellent opportunity to pursue my post graduate studies in Psycholinguistics in Italy, I could not believe that attendance to lectures were not compulsory. I had to schedule my time so I could read and study 3 – 4 books per course and sit for the exams. The past year that I have started this programme, I have come to appreciate even more distance education and what it can do to help me professionally and to meet people of the same interests and field. My concept of traditional education has completely changed radically.

Tracey & Richey (2006) cites B. Holmberg and his key assumptions of distance education. He believes that interaction and emotional involvement are essential in teaching. However, Moore enumerates three types of interaction: learner-content; learner-learner; learner-instructor. I firmly believe that both theories are applicable in traditional as well as distance education. Moore’s assumption suits very well distance learning in many circumstances. Somehow, these three types of interaction intertwine especially when the material is introduced to the learner and he elaborates on it making it his own. Discussions are an excellent venue for learners to interact while instructor feedback is a must so that learner will understand how he is doing.

Through the past courses I have gone through in this programme, I come to appreciate the flexibility distance learning offers to people like me who are in constantly travelling. It is allows me to work at a pace I can manage and at the same time to cater to my needs most especially in a place like Iraq where the infrastructure is not yet in place. I think this course will allow me to put it to test.

Distance learning is becoming even more an important part of acquiring knowledge and understandings in the 21st century. More educational institutions and students are moving towards acquiring degrees through online learning. Most teachers I meet who work outside their country of residence or who are in a city where there are no good educational institution avails of the chance to enrol themselves in an online programme. Personally, my concept of distance learning has changed 360 degrees from being almost restraint from hearing about it. As technology improves along with its software and hardware, enormous possibilities can be achieved so that education can be disseminated in parts of the world where no instructors can be found. For example, there are parts of India where students can use computers to access online courses but there are not enough instructors to meet their needs. I foresee distance learning to serve teachers for professional development, networking and exchange of strategies or best practices. Distance learning to me should bridge gaps between the rich and poor so that everyone has access to information, to knowledge henceforth, create their own understanding based on their own experiences. Learning online should be introduced from primary so that children are introduced to the system so that later in life they can use it to the fullest. Distance education should be part of a global society where free information is shared and not withheld.

Unfortunately, Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Coleman, C. (2008) mentions in their paper that distance learning is a concept not understood by administrators and often those who fund educational institutions. Partly, there are various factors to consider in applying Distance Learning. My current situation which is in Iraq is far way behind not only in terms of infrastructure but perspective wise. The culture in itself believes that traditional learning is more effective than distance learning. Teachers and students need to see each other. In this culture, the teacher is the sole source of knowledge and information.

Though I convinced to the impact of distance learning in education, I have doubts how this western thinking and technology can be applied in countries like the Middle East. I suppose my question is: will all cultures consider distance education as an alternative for giving equal opportunities for their people to acquire knowledge and understanding? How far can it go and how useful will it be?

Malu

References:

Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Coleman, C. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 3: K12). TechTrends, 52(5), 63–67.

Tracey, M., & Richey, R. (2005). The evolution of distance education. Distance Learning, 2(6), 17–21.