subject: Distance Learning Comes with Opportunities for Self Dependence [print this page] Distance Learning Comes with Opportunities for Self Dependence
Distance learning is non-traditional learning. Though it has come a long way, its educational value and profitability for professional careers are still being debated. Many still question the value of distance education and learning. The debate on the efficacy of this avant-garde mode of learning is on the go. Despite the opposition and negative views, distance learning courses are high on the meter of popularity. It is a revolution in education as in other fields.
The most common problem with distance education in the past was lack of interaction between students and teachers. The 21st century picture of distance education is a departure from what was in the past. Lack of communication in distance learning is all history now. By the virtue of Internet and digital media technology, many different modes of communication are open to distance learners. Institutional representatives themselves are indifferent to the negative views and supportive of distance education.
Many institutional representatives give their votes to distance learning courses for these courses, according to them, make the learners self-dependent. The courses are backed up with researched materials in a kind of self-study format. It is good for those who have depended on class notes and classroom teachers since childhood. Psychologists too have raised their thumbs up in support of distance education. They are of the view that students who don't make efforts to study independently will come out the shell, with distance learning.
There is a large community of distance learners across the world. With thousands of students and professionals joining distance learning courses every year, the community is growing wider and wider. In the present decade, the members of this community are technologically privileged to interact among themselves, no matter how far they are from one another. There are online forums where the members of distance education communities can keep in touch with one another. Such group interaction is good for the project-based learning.
Nowadays, students of any discipline need to do project work based on the courses, online or regular, they are pursuing. It is a deliberate effort to make the students go beyond books. The students who are shy feel reluctant to interact with others and approach others for help required to complete their study projects. Distance learning comes with a push for them to interact with other learners of the same discipline or course on online forums.
Still, teens and adults living in some remote parts of the world are not familiar with the innovations and applications of communication technology or media. They fall back in race with those who technology and gadgets are playthings for. Though the world has become a global village, competition in every field runs on a cosmic scale. The online prospects of online distance learning courses are encouraging for the students who are away from the light of advance in technology, communication and media. Distance learning is no longer sitting on couch or lying on bed and reading books. Now, it is more of learning on computer and going public online.
