Distance Learning

Distance learning is one of the promising forms of education which is the result of the technological advancements in our time. Like classroom based teaching and learning, this new educational tool has its own advantages and disadvantages. Peterson’s the Debate about Online Learning and Brandy’s Fault Lines in the Terrain of Distance Education clearly addressed the success and failure that some students and teachers faced when they got involved in these academic spaces their institutions created. Both articles focused on and blamed the base (economical practices) for being the real source of difficulty raising in distance learning classes. The major problem for teachers and students alike was their inability to get access to technology because they could not pay fees for Internet Service provider or buy computers.

Although I believe that economy plays a significant role in our life and constitutes the backbone of education, I agree with Brady that there must be other causes. Brady argues that

distance education recreates different kinds of material and social access chasms even as it promises to bridge gaps of time and space. We need to reconceive our and students’ roles in the work of education, especially if we are to understand the implications, possibilities, and power of technology and use it strategically (356).

In this paragraph, Brandy points to the role other social practices and forces might play in distance learning classes. Take cultural practices as an example. Students coming from other societies which confirm gender differences might find it difficult having on-line classes since such societies put constraints on privacy and male-female relationships. The idea of exchanging emails with teachers and students from the other sex infringe these social codes as they believe. The same holds true for gay and lesbian students who usually prefer to contact their peers.