In favor of Distance Education

I am a living example of why distance learning education is valuable and even indispensable nowadays: I begun my MSLIS when I was three months pregnant and I'll finish it watching an 'almost three-year-old' running around in a town where none of the universities has a College of Information department or anything alike that could offer me the required courses to become a school media specialist.

Moreno (2010) brings out several points regarding what motivates us to learn and, so far, I have found them all throughout my online educational experience (Spring 2008-present, that is): I have made a strong personal connection with professors who understood me and accommodated my needs through difficult personal times, my professors have found ways to create a classroom community through different activities and collaborative projects, the College of Information's staff has been very caring and helpful through different registration epochs, etc. Also, this educational experience has helped me to move from 'extrinsically-motivated' to 'intrinsically-motivated' as I have discovered that a this career, which initially promised to enhance my chances to provide a better financial future for my family, is also full of exciting areas I'm interested in. In fact, I am now motivated to keep studying on my own to join again someday this same department to pursue an even higher degree.

Vasquez's (2010) article found in The Miami Herald reflects the reality of people like me who can't afford to leave their locations in search for better education opportunities and benefit greatly from distance education. In fact, if we put things in perspective, the chance we are given to complete our education this way also affects positively the quality of life of people around us as they can count on new professionals who, otherwise, wound't have existed as Vasquez (2010) shows in the example of Iraqi doctors being trained to save lives in Iraq by highly accredited American teachers through distance education.

Moving on, Lohr (2009) brings out the valuable point that online students perform slightly better than their colleagues from classrooms settings. Personally, I have found that online education requires more individual preparation and more independent reading than my previous classroom experiences and that might explain that fact for me. I, with no doubt, feel prepared to face the practice of my new profession after all the materials, explanations and discussions.

All in all, I'm likely to favor distance learning over classroom learning in the future. I don't really miss sitting in a freezing classroom copying what's in the board swiftly because it'll be erased: now I can listen to the recorded class or read my teachers' advices as many times as I need. Distance learning has surely gone the 'extra mile' for me :-).

References

Lohr, S. (2009, August 19). Study finds that online education beats the classroom. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/study-finds-that-online-education-beats-the-classroom/

Moreno, R. (2010). Educational Psychology. Danvers, MA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Vasquez, M. (2010, June 7). Colleges serious about internet intellectuals. The Miami Herald. Retrieved from http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/07/1664292/college-serious-about-internet.html