Open and Dıstance Learnıng

 

                            Open and Distance Learning Discussion Report

 

       

 

        During 4 weeks, we read and discussed four different important issues related to distance education. All of them are subjects that have a huge role in distance education. In general, we discussed the place of technology in distance education, creating a sense of existence, who actually participates or not, and the importance of the flipped learnig classroom. These four topics that have a very important place in online education with today's circulation and the advancement of technology. These were the issues that every teacher was closely interested in and would face.

       In the third  week, our topic was distance language teaching with technology. Techonology mediated distance language teaching has become widespread largely due to the pandemic and the advancement of technology . I talked about how distance education has benefited from the advancement of technology .These are from many courses to education radio television ,auido and video tapes. Moreover, computer Technologies offered interactive multimedia and web 2.0 environments. In terms of audiographic and video conferencing environments have become crucial components in many distance language courses providing opportunities for interaction and collaboration. Computer-mediated communication serves as the bridge that keeps students together in distance language learning. It not only motivates them, but also helps them to bring what they've learned into practice. In addition to these, I also talked about my own internship experiences related to CMC.  In the fourth week, we discussed the important issue of creating a sense of existence with Taha.Sense of preesence is so crucial to instructor and learner raltionships . The article shows that it builds up strong relationships with each other. I state that  when the instruction and learner interact with each other , the lesson becaomes more effective and fluent.So, if the learners do not provide sense of presence ,  the instructor may be uncortable with lack of sense of presence.Her/his motivation may decrease,so the lesson can be boring because of lack of social presence. Thus, I said that motivation is provided by social presence. I asked several questions, one of them is  : What kind of problems occur in a lesson where there is no sense of presence? According to article, Communication and interactivity affect social presence in a postive way. When online communication  occurs; thoughts , experessions and feelings between instructor and learners occurs. I also answered the questions that Taha asked to me. These questions are whether video conferencing people from other countries can help you improve my language , teachers need to develop or improve their skills to teach online , teachers need a brand new curriculum for online teaching and  difficulties that teachers can face during an online lesson. We talked about our experiences during the discussions . In the fifth week, we talked about the article about fake or real engagement. . Every teacher needs their students to be involved in the tasks ,to be actively working on it , to be deeply involved in it and to be mentally concentrated on it. So,  The active presence of students plays an important role in language classes in the online environment. The article  generally talked about language learner engagement from the learner perspective. Engagement consists of  three main dimensions: behavioral (active participation), cognitive (thoughtful mental investment) and affective (willingness and emotional responses) however  ,These three dimensions are not all activated to the same degree at the same time as mentioned in the article. While a student may be cognitively engaged, he or she may not be emotionally engaged. They may be socially engaged, but they are not cognitively engaged in the same way. Some people agree with this statement while others not .  I am the one who I agree . Because  I have experienced it , In my training program,  students participate in the lesson socially, but I have seen many students who answered questions without understanding it or not listening to the lesson but somehow participating. I gave  a number of examples in the disscussion. However, It can be just the opposite. The student understands the subject in the lesson, that is, cognitively active but participation does not show socially. The learners' capacity and willingness to participate can be influenced by their physical wellbeing. It would be much more difficult for a student to participate in class if they are emotionally or psychologically uncomfortable. In the sixth week, our topic was the flipped learning classroom. To help students' cognitive processing when learning English in a flipped classroom, Chen and Hwang created concept-mapping-based learning activities. The article found that this design has positive effects. The positive effects of flipped classroom are discussed during our discussion. One of the main reasons for flipped classroom is to get students to participate in higher-order thought exercises during class. We can say that flipped learning can enhance conginitive skills.Moreover, The results of the study revealed that the flipped classroom is more suitable for foreign language students. Flipped learning has not been very useful for classes using their native language. As to flipped learning classroom activities , The most of the learning activities based on extensive practice of language skills and knowledge. Asking students to discuss their responses to a listening activity or a grammar exercise, perform peer communication and provide input on each other's writing, or share their thoughts on a reading text are all examples of comprehensive practice. Learning tools of the flipped learning tools are video-watching tool included TED talks, video-record lectures, documenta ries. All activities and tools are effective for students' learning Flipped learning classrooms increases students' motivation, satisfaction, perceptions and participation . The positive effect of flipped learning, which I deduce from my own experiences. I also presented and explained an article myself. I think it improved my second language and I understood the subject better on my own.

    In conclusion,  these are issues that are related to Distance Learning  experienced by ourselves in classrooms and should be discussed in online education. We can see that the intertwining of technology with education enriches learning and teaching. Technology provides many benefits to education and distance learning. Futhermore, creating a sense of presence by students is of particular importance for online education. Real participation in their students is essential to support learning ,otherwise there is no real engagement without participation. I can say that flipped learning is effective in foreign language learning in the classroom and it takes students' learning to a different level.

References

·         Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching (Rosemary M. Lehman Simone C. O. Conceição)

·         Fake or Real Engagement (Sarah Mercer, Kyle R. Talbot and Isobel Kai-Hui Wang)

·         What is student engagement in online learning … and how do I know when it is there? University of Melbourne, 2020

·         A systematic review of research on flipped language classrooms: theoretical foundations, learning activities, tools, research topics and findings (Di Zou, Shuqiong Luo, Haoran Xie & Gwo-Jen Hwang)

·          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hLOUlbAgs0 (Using Flipped Classroom when teaching online)