Module+01+Reflections

I think that the importance of empathy in education is not at all restricted to DE, in contrast to the opinion of my compatriots "who seemed to feel that it [the empathy approach] lacked academic dignity" (Holmberg, 2005, p. 39). I remember some of the face-to-face seminars I participated in as a student in a “traditional” university. Very often they were organized like that: In the first session the teacher distributes a list with different topics and a bibliography. Every student has to choose one topic/one article or whatever till the next session. In this session a plan will be made up determining who is going to present what during the seminar. From then on, in every session one student will present his topic during 20-30 minutes and the rest of the time is reserved for discussion. The teacher rarely interacts and even more rarely intervenes, even if a student’s presentation is a catastrophe and therefore senseless and useless for the whole class. In these cases, there was of course a “real dialogue” (Holmberg, 2005, p. 38) going on after the presentation. But what was missing was any kind of advice given by the teacher before, during or after the presentation of topics by students. The “simulated dialogue” (p. 38) would have been a good option to help the students to better understand and deal with the texts and subjects, even if a “real dialogue” was theoretically possible during the whole time of the seminar. One reason why those teachers did not even try to support and to motivate their students was maybe that they had no empathy at all for them and that they wanted by all means maintain their “academic dignity”.
 * 09/28/2009**

References: Holmberg, B. (2005). //The evolution, principles and practices of distance education//. Oldenburg: Bibliotheks-und Informationssytem der Universitat Oldenburg.

**Reflections on social aspects of DE**
I would like to come back to the aspect of “social responsibility” obviously stressed by Lyoså. This is a point I found very interesting and especially surprising when reading about the history of DE. Before it never came to my mind that DE could be associated with a special social claim or motivation. However this was the case in the 19th century when some professors of the University of Cambridge wanted to open up higher education for working people and when correspondence educators in the US used this DE especially to give women the opportunity to study. I live and work in an environment (West Africa) where DE (often interpreted as e-learning) is considered as something unaffordable and therefore elitist, made by and FOR developed countries. When we talk about DE today, we generally refer to computer and internet technology, something which is still extremely expensive in many countries. Every time DE is mentioned here, the reactions are the same “But we cannot afford that”, “we don’t have the equipment” or even “we have too much power cuts” and unfortunately all this is true. I do not want to go deeper into the topic “DE and development” (I do this in another class) but I also join you, Shannon, that even in our societies DE is not a more social form of education than other ones. I do not find your thinking harsh at all. If I lost my job today I would have serious problems to go on with my certificate program… Are there still examples for modern DE programs that consider balancing inequalities (not only between age-groups but in general) as their role?
 * 09/23/2009**

Reference: Lyoså, E. (1992). Distance education in a modern society. //Open learning 7//(2), 23-30.

My interest in DE started in Africa despite the problems I described before and I am not at all as pessimistic as my precedent post might seem. It is true that I focus too much on e-learning (maybe because it’s in the center of my interest) but even in this domain I believe that DE can be a solution to ineffective education systems and institutions in developing countries, especially in the higher education sector. In my experience this is still difficult to communicate to people here because of the economic problems already mentioned. But investments have to be made in infrastructure anyway, and to my opinion a long term solution could be DE instead of going on to spend money for more and more classrooms, obsolete material and badly equipped libraries which cannot be kept up to date. In May I had the chance to visit the exhibition of the “e-learning Africa 2009” conference in Dakar. I was highly impressed of all the possibilities and initiatives presented there. (However, to come back to the “social aspects” and just as an anecdote: Many of my former Senegalese university colleagues did not join the conference because the fee was too high. And me too – as a “non African, non student” potential participant for whom the fee was much higher – I could not afford to pay it, that’s why I restricted myself to the free exhibition. )
 * 09/24/2009**