Saba in his "Distance Education Theory, Methodology, and Epistemology: A Pragmatic Paradigm" discusses how different and at the same time how similar distance versus face-to-face education can be. As for the final results, the difference between the two is not that significant. Eventually, students learn the same material and obtain the same knowledge. However, because the teachers and the students do not meet in person, the complexity of distance education can be overwhelming for both educators and students.
I have been taking online classes for quite some time. The first couple of weeks of each year are the toughest for me, because I build a new schedule, manage my time differently, and I have to compose some system for each class because I usually take two to three of them. I reach my equilibrium by dividing each class into sections. The first half of the week I read all the material given and search the internet for additional resources. The second half of the week I respond to discussions, and then I write my papers on the weekends. If I do not have enough time to read any extra material, this is when I am out of my equilibrium, because I feel that I am behind on something important – some significant changes in the world, or valuable information that I missed. I assume because I went to schools with behaviorist approach to studying, I still have to have a system and some discipline towards my online education to be able to keep up and maintain that equilibrium everyone strives for. References Saba, F. (2003) "Distance Education Theory, Methodology, and Epistemology: A Pragmatic Paradigm" in Handbook of Distance Education. pp. 3-19.
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Olga Usova posted Sep 16, 2017 9:06 PM In chapter 1 of his book, Tony Bates is talking about education being directly connected to the labor market. I think this is the major challenge I will encounter when I am an online instructor or an online curriculum “builder” because labor market changes so rapidly. Distance education is very focused on knowledge rather than experience and practice. This is where I will have to find a fine line between those two to make sure I incorporate both in my teaching, especially because more and more students are interested in accomplishing their degrees online. I believe, in fifty to a hundred years from now, all education will be distance education. I will not live that long, but the effect of it we can perceive even now. More and more students choose to work full-time and go to school full-time. They take either hybrid classes or online classes to do that. How do you teach them to be fully prepared for future professions if they choose their college education to be their future career? This is the question I often ask myself. I often wonder whether I will be able to find a job after I finish my degree or not. Fortunately, most jobs have a training or probation period that helps new employees adjust to new environment. However, not all jobs do, and a lot of them want you to have experience. I often hear people say that they cannot be hired because they are overqualified but do not have enough experience. Therefore, I think my biggest challenge now is to know how to incorporate all this knowledge into skills to be able to keep up with nowadays labor market. My challenge in the future will be to make sure my classes give my students all the necessary knowledge and skills at the same time. Why do you think it is important to understand the epistemology (theory of knowledge) underlying a learning theory? Discuss the impact that an understanding of knowledge can have on a distance education professional’s choice of instructional practices and technologies.
In chapter 2 of “The Nature of Knowledge and the Applications for Teaching,” Tony Bates gives us an example of different thinking views, and he talks about different approaches to learning and teaching. This is where I can give my own example. I grew up in Russia and went to Russian school, and then a college. In Russia, they have an objectivist approach to teaching and learning, where truth exists outside of our mind, laws of physics are constant, and a body of knowledge needs to be presented by a teacher to be learned by students (Bates, 2015). The teachers do include some elements of fun and game playing techniques to their students when they are younger, but it all gets eliminated in higher grades. For example, the students study a math chapter with a teacher, practice it in class, then they go home and read the same chapter, do additional exercises and answer additional questions not answered in the classroom. Repetition and revision are the key to success in Russian schools, because at the end of the semester the students always take accumulative exams that last about 6 hours for written exams, and the rest of them are oral, face-to-face with a teacher, who can ask any additional questions from the course. Basically, they work on long-term memory and understanding (Bates, 2015). Schools in the U.S. have a behaviorist approach to teaching and learning, where students stay longer in schools, absorbing and processing most of it in the classroom. Their homework is not that complicated until the start their higher education. The behaviorists rely on feelings, attitudes, and consciousness, where students can process a lot of information on a subconscious level using their five feelings (Bates, 2015). What I am trying to say is that people learn differently. Some have different backgrounds and culture. That is why it is important to understand the theory of knowledge. As a distance education professor, I will have to work on not only on giving my students materials to read, although this is how I learn, but also practical exercises, videos, tests, writing materials. Some people learn right then, and right there, others need some quiet atmosphere to revise and process, and a lot of it depends on their background and understanding. References Bates, A. W. (2015). Teaching in a digital age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning. Retrieved from: https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/ |