Online and Distance Education

Nowadays, people all over the world are provided with a variety of on-line courses developed by various educational institutions. I used to think that there is no better way of getting a high-quality education than face-to-face learning. However, perceptions change, and now I am well-aware that distance learning can be equally effective if organized and planned carefully.

In distance learning both the learners and educators are presented with new opportunities as well as new challenges.

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Firstly,one of the important features about distance learning as compared to face-to-face learning is that it requires greater autonomy form the learner. This implies that learner independence plays a  central part in this type of education. In order to have the maximum benefit from an online course the learner should be able to adapt to the new learning environment. For this the learner should process strong management and organizational skills. The learner is more isolated from study context and, therefore, does not always have an opportunity of receiving an immediate feedback from the teacher (White, 2003).

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Currently, one of my friends is taking an online management course and I asked her about the challenges and the positive sides of the course. What she really finds exciting about the course is that after having done the assigned readings on a particular topic she discusses it with her professor via skype. Besides, this is a good way for her to combine her work with her studies. One of the challenges, though, is that there is no group work and everything should be done by herself. Another limitation is the time difference between the countries.

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Another thing worth mentioning about distance education is that teachers here assign a different role. Here tutors have the role of a facilitator. They should help the learner's learn independently. Besides, while designing an online course the educators should take into account different learning styles and implement a variety of technologies such as skype, blogging, moodle, telephone conferences (White, 2004).

According to Hill (2012), at present some educational institutions are closely cooperating with other external organizations to get help with online content, curriculum and instructor/learner services.

Thus, distance education contributes to lifelong learning. Nowadays you can take as many coerces as you wish. In fact, you can become educated in many fields. I thing, in the future I will take some online coerces other than my chosen field of study.

LMS vs PLE

In this blog post I’m going to discuss two different learning systems, namely LMS (learning management systems) and PLE (personal learning environment). According to the video by Stephen Downes that I have recently watched on the YouTube, these are two different learning environments. LMS is a structured system set by an educational institution and it provides systematic and guided learning. Moodle is one example of LMS; it is a kind of repository where the teachers can share information with his/her learners, provide constructive feedback on their progress and monitor their learning process. LMS is widely used by many universities and schools abroad. However, in Armenia this kind of systems are not so widely spread and are used by very few schools. As it is mentioned in the video by Stephen Downes, one major drawback in LMS is the fact that you can benefit from such system as long as you are a student and once you graduate you don’t have an access to your materials. Another shortcoming about LMS is that it is limited to a particular group of learners of that school.

By contrast, PLE provides learners with more freedom. By this I mean learners are free to choose the learning materials and tools that they believe are more effective in their learning process. There is no content restriction. Besides, learners have more freedom in terms of sharing information with whomever they want. Thus, in PLE the circle of learners is much broader than in LMS. You don’t have to be member of that specific group to have an access to the content. Another great advantage in PLE is that you can always have an access to your material even after graduating as it “travels with you”.

Taking into account the advantages of both LMS and PLE, I think, a good educational institution should not limit itself to LMS only. It should find ways of integrating both systems to design an effective course. I think in Armenia, it would be a good idea to have this mixture of systems in all schools and universities. However, this kind of implementation needs careful planning and hard work.

Open Educational Resources

According to the article called “Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0” (Brown & Adler, 2008), in this rapidly changing world there is an increasing need for lifelong learning. Nowadays, due to the open educational recourses (OER) people can have a free access to educational recourses everywhere an at any time. Most of the valuable thing about OER is that they promote “social learning” where the main focus is on not what we are learning but how we are learning. The idea is that we can learn things through participation and interaction.

In open source communities people are not only able to use various materials for free, but also contribute to the creating or alteration of the content. For instance in Wikipedia or in other open sources you can easily track the editing process . “In this open environment, both the content and the process by which it is created are equally visible, thereby enabling a new kind of critical reading”  (Brown & Adler, 2008).

In many countries of the wold, this type of social learning has been integrated in formal education . It is interesting to mention that there are many interesting projects that enable students to work collaboratively with scientists. One of such projects is the Faulkes Telescope Project, that provides the UK students with free access to the high-powered robotic telescope.

Unfortunately, in Armenia the awareness of the notion of open educational resources is very low. This is partly because of the lack of competence and interest of the Armenian teachers in using and promoting open technologies (Danielyan and Alexandryan, 2008).

Thus, I think as teachers we have to realize the importance of introducing open technologies and contribute to raising other teachers’ and learners’ knowledge and interest in adopting and promoting the OER movement in Armenian schools.

Personally, I think that OER are a good way to become eduacated in the spheres other than my chosen profession, for example, by exploring some of the OER links I have found some useful and interesting cources, such as

Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/special-programs/sp-401-introduction-to-womens-and-gender-studies-fall-2010/

Minds and Machines
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/linguistics-and-philosophy/24-09-minds-and-machines-fall-2011/

Moral Psychology
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/linguistics-and-philosophy/24-120-moral-psychology-spring-2009/

Bilingual assessment
http://www.coerll.utexas.edu/coerll/projects/bilingual

MALL

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It is common knowledge that mobile phones have become an integral part of our everyday life and they can be used for various educational purposes. I think , this can promote successful language learning both in  and outside  classroom. For instance, learners can use the recorder to interview each other, they can take photos of the things and places they are interested in and bring and share them with the rest of the class. Mobiles are also widely used to interact with others in social networks such as Facebook, MySpace or Skype.  This is can be an effective way for learners to practice their English outside classroom.

In the article entitled “Action Research Approach on Mobile Learning Design for the Underserved” (Kim, 2008), the author carried on a research study for developing a mobile learning model for migrant indigenous children of Latin America. The children had no access to technologies, they lived in very poor living conditions, and most of the population was illiterate. I was surprised to learn that children (3-13-years-old) needed minimal help in operating the mobile devices and were able to learn to use them just in minutes. Also it is interesting to note that children with an early stage of reading proficiency could read the short stories at the same speed as in papers and magazines. Besides, they enjoyed using aural and visual animations and learned to browse the stories very easily. I think this study can serve as evidence of the effectiveness of mobile phones in any learning environment.

Also, mobile learning fosters collaboration among learners. In one of the articles by Kukulska –Hulme and Lesley Shield, mobile learning is described as a means of promoting interaction among learners. Mobile devices create an extra dimension for learning by allowing students to identify, edit and share information with other learners and teachers. According to the authors , mobile learning can successfully support collaborative asynchronous speaking and listening activities. However it was found out that it is more difficult to support synchronous interaction by using Mobile devises as you need you learners to be available at a specific time.

SECOND LIFE

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While reading the article written by Calogne, who has experience in teaching courses using the virtual world of Second Life in nine universities, I was surprised to learn that nowadays there are educational institutions that are using virtual worlds for educational purposes successfully. Second Life is a 3D graphical setting and each person can have an avatar representing themselves. In this new type of learning environment student can meet for class activities, which include lectures, discussions, various group projects and case studies. It was very exciting for me to learn that a teacher can transfer his/her regular class into a completely new setting. For example, you can have a class somewhere on the beach, or in a different country. Besides, in Second Life students can create content using virtual tools. Here they really have the chance of being creative. Here students are not passive; they are actively involved in the learning process.

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Another important thing that I would like to mention is that in Second life students’ participation is observable by the teacher throughout the course. This in itself makes it easier for the teacher to assess and give feedback.

According to the article by Welch, virtual worlds are a good way to capture students’ attention as they get excited when they have the chance of interacting in a new kind of environment, socializing and accomplishing tasks. Various kinds of virtual worlds, including Second life, can be adapted for educational purposes. However, for this teachers should consider many essential factors affecting the quality of virtual education.  According to Welch, one of the main challenges is transferring a safe physical environment into a safe virtual learning environment.

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Welch thinks that lessons conducted in a virtual setting are not well-developed and often lack proper guidance and monitoring. However, according to Cologne, teachers can have a well-structured course due to careful planning, a good syllabus defining the main objectives of the course and proper grading rubrics.

I think, it would be really exciting to introduce this kind of learning in the English courses in Armenia. However, we should realize that virtual worlds are not completely safe in terms of content, and this might not be appropriate for any age-group. Thus, together with benefits, teachers should be aware of the challenges Second Life  presents and try to face them in the right way.