Introduction
Ladies and gentlemen, back in the 20th century, education could only be attained by gathering a group of young learners, having them stay in a classroom for 12 hours a day where they learn the basic rudiments of life pertaining to their early childhood. Maturing in life and years, we see the same group of learners, now in college, learning about topics that are of interest to them from people who have supposedly gained all the knowledge there is about particular topics.
These people are called professors and the learners are called college students. Their purpose for gathering in a formal classroom? Professors impart the knowledge and the students take proper notes, taking their professors’ lectures to be absolute, unquestionable, undeniable truths.
Main text
This was the basic education scenario that most of our parents grew up in. They had no other choice except to attend formal classes and sit in classrooms. It was a totally different era back then. People had more time in their hands, students did not have to work just as hard as they studied in order to remain enrolled in school. During our parent’s time, education, personality, and intellect were honed by the amount of time a person spends in a formal education setting.
Such a concept is what Mr. James Barzcz defines as a proper education. With that thought in mind, he disregards the concept of distance education as being a real educational tool. The problem is that time progresses, people’s needs change, and life as we all know it must adjust to the needs of the time. Education is not exempted from this evolution.
Distance learning education has become a highly effective tool for learners in the 21st century due to the extremely fast-paced lifestyle that everyone leads today in order to survive. Students in college find that they need to take out student loans in order to stay in school. However, in order to pay off their loans and survive, they have to take on a number of jobs. For students who find themselves in this sort of financial crunch, distance learning education is a real Godsend. They are able to continue their education while working thereby allowing them to effectively cover their financial responsibilities without fear of lacking time for study.
Mr. Barzcz regards distance education as merely a “computer-generated coursework as mechanistic acquisition of information.” I admit that distance learning education is more computer-based than anything else. But that is why it becomes an effective learning tool for the students of the 21st century. The internet, long regarded as the largest library ever built by man is merely an extension of the school books found in a school library, for researching study material in a library is also a mechanistic acquisition of information, the only difference is one comes from the written page and the other comes from digitized pages.
Both methods still require the students to read information sources, analyze, and understand the data gathered and discuss it, although in a more virtual setup of a classroom. The dictates of the lessons remain the same. You read, study, do homework, take exams, pass the subject or fail. Just like in a real classroom, everything depends upon how hard the student will work on his lessons in order to produce positive results.
Summary
Therefore, I have to disagree with anybody who says that distance learning education is ineffective. If anything, it has opened more educational opportunities for the students because it allows them to learn not only from class lectures, but from real life as well and then share the same information with their class. The only reason I can see for professors to frown upon distance education is that it has removed their infallibility in the eyes of the students.
Distance learning education has turned education into a democratic process wherein everyone actively participates in the education of one another. That is why I believe that distance education can effectively fulfill the purpose of a true education.