The
distance classes are a new solution to improve the learning on this digital
era, maybe because it is easier to find the information one as student needs. But
not at all is easier on this kind of class because a lot of students that take
this distance classes are not familiarize with them and if on their first class
they have an awful experience, they will hate this distance classes so one as
teacher needs to prevent that kind of bad experience happens.
This happen once, when I was on
third semester of the language teaching career, like one and half year ago, it
was my first time in contact with this modality of class; the class was basic
psychology. I hated that class because the teacher only gave the lesson plan
and the students of that class and I had only to do an activity once a month
and the teacher never gave feedback. In
my opinion, I did not learn anything during that class, and I fail it. I had to
repeat that subject, but the second time I take it I notice that the teacher
had used exactly the same lesson plan without changing anything.
When the second activity date came I
was sick so I send the same essay that I did on the first time but only adding
one paragraph more. The first time in that essay I got forty three as grade and
the second time I got one hundred; with this I confirmed that the teacher did
check neither the activities so I started to think that all distance classes
were useless nor a rip off because the teacher that gave that class did not was
attend the students’ needs. Until I take the open and distance education class,
where in this subject the teacher is more aware to what the students are making
and promotes also the autonomy and the interaction by using videos, comments,
etc.; but most important the teacher gives feedback to the student, this is an
aspect that can help the learner to know if he is doing the things right or
not.
I believe that an important aspect to keep
motivate the student is the feedback because the teacher is not present like on
a normal class, using feedback he can give the learner more motivation to
continue exploring the knowledge. So if we as teacher need to, in distance classes,
give feedback to the students to make they feel that are doing well and be more
motivate to progress in our class; in other hand, if we did not give this to
our learners they will forfeit the class and probably hate using distance
class.
Well, I think that otherwise of my
experience, distance classes have advantages and disadvantages like everything
that exist on the world. The advantages on this kind of classes are more
notorious than the disadvantages because there are more than the others.
One of the most notorious advantages
is that gives the student the liberty to find their own way and rhythm to learn
the topics. This means that the learner is not obligated to be constantly focus
on the lesson because he will be working on his own rhythm not on the group
rhythm, in comparison to the normal class where the teacher gives a rhythm
according to the group and classroom needs and some students will be bored
causing that they lost the interest on learning. But in distance classes, this
does not occur because as I mention before, the student will learn and research
by his own, the knowledge. The teacher will become a guide to this student with
the correct feedback the harmony between both is gone improve the knowledge and
the learner will have more creativity.
Other notorious advantage is the
aspect that allows people that work or does not feel comfort being on a
classroom, the distance classes are perfect for them because they will doing
the study in their home, their work place or any place where they feel comfortable.
Also they can manage their own time to learn without to interfere with their
work time or maybe if the person considers himself with too old for be into the
classroom to prevent been target of laughs from the younger students so taking distance
classes is perfect for this person because he will be able to study without the
fear of the laughs, and also he will have more motivation to learn.
The other of the advantages that I
consider notorious is that gives facilities to the students for improve their
knowledge and learner process, because distance classes are given on internet
the learners can have access to this tool to search for concepts that they
ignore or do not know. Also if the student has any doubt, he can contact the
teacher by the different electronic media such as send to an e-mail, or maybe
contact him with the help of social networks like Facebook, Twitter, for
mention some. Thanks to the technology that the smartphones have you can also
count with WhatsApp, Skype and other similar communication tools that help the
student and the teacher be on contact.
But not in life is perfect that why
as all the open classes have also disadvantages; one of the most notorious and
maybe the most important disadvantage is that sometimes could occur a blackout.
This means that probably the electricity power will fall, when the student is
sending his activities, or maybe the internet signal does not response; these
problem could make the student feel a little disappointment specially if that
problems occur during the last moment to send the work, because the learner
will never know when those problems pass.
Other disadvantages that can appear
is that if the student does not feel the same by taking this type of class,
maybe because he always take normal classes so it will be harder to him to
understand how these distance classes works. And because the teacher is not
present as in a normal class, the student will need to be more autonomous using
the guide of the teacher, but he also needs to receive feedback from the guide,
because if the feedback do not appears the learner will feel disappointed.
Other disadvantage that could appear
is a common also in the normal classes, and this is the plagiarism and
procrastination. They are serious problems that appear a lot, but here on
distance class are more common because the student thinks that is a class on
internet and he instead of doing the activities, he will be maybe playing or
chatting in social networks. With this the student is leaving to late the work he
need to do, also he can ask their partners or someone that already do the
activity to copy the same work. But when the learners search for some
information on internet he takes that information as own without giving credit
to the real author.
In conclusion, I propose that as the
technology is growing and the new generations of students, distance classes
will be necessary to satisfied the needs they could have by the use of new
digital materials.