An interesting question was raised last week about the perception of online learning; what the media’s stand is on this and what is being projected about online learning - including distance education.
When looking at the holistic picture, it still does seem that conventional, face-to-face learning is more acceptable for some scenarios. I know for example, that just until some time ago, when an internationally trained teacher came to Canada and applied for certification, their B.Ed. program was not given any credit by OCT if the program had been done in a distance mode. Nowadays, however, I have heard that they have started to look into such cases as well, but the number of conditions imposed are higher than in the case of teachers whose programs have been face-to-face. I believe that the reasoning behind their non-acceptance of distance education programs emerges from the fact that people take such courses sometimes just for the sake of credentials and in a very ‘quick and easy’ way. It was believed that distance education lacks serious passion and commitment.
Personally I believe that it is the way a distance education program is set up that determines its effectiveness. Things are changing pretty fast with more online resources available now than ever before. It reminds me of a video that I watched in a previous course in which Allen Collins mentions our current age as a life-long learning era , where learning is available just when and where we would like to have it. Not only graduate and other academic courses, but also various ‘casual’ courses are now available to provide interested individuals some learning at their own pace.
When looking at the holistic picture, it still does seem that conventional, face-to-face learning is more acceptable for some scenarios. I know for example, that just until some time ago, when an internationally trained teacher came to Canada and applied for certification, their B.Ed. program was not given any credit by OCT if the program had been done in a distance mode. Nowadays, however, I have heard that they have started to look into such cases as well, but the number of conditions imposed are higher than in the case of teachers whose programs have been face-to-face. I believe that the reasoning behind their non-acceptance of distance education programs emerges from the fact that people take such courses sometimes just for the sake of credentials and in a very ‘quick and easy’ way. It was believed that distance education lacks serious passion and commitment.
Personally I believe that it is the way a distance education program is set up that determines its effectiveness. Things are changing pretty fast with more online resources available now than ever before. It reminds me of a video that I watched in a previous course in which Allen Collins mentions our current age as a life-long learning era , where learning is available just when and where we would like to have it. Not only graduate and other academic courses, but also various ‘casual’ courses are now available to provide interested individuals some learning at their own pace.
I cannot close this journal without mentioning YouTube! Being away from my parents and older, experienced relatives, all my kitchen learning usually comes from YouTube. When I was put in the role of a technology teacher a few years ago, I self-taught myself quite a bit of technology using YouTube. There are several online methods nowadays like video, audio, screencasts, podcasts, streaming, forums etc that will let us learn all the time. Online learning needs no bashing, because it is valuable.
I agree, Nita! Online learning needs no bashing, but many people bash it anyway. I love technology, but time and time again if it fails me I bash it- but for the 1 time it fails me, there are 1000 times it didn't. Nothings perfect but so many people focus on the small imperfections about online learning. Hopefully things will change!
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