Reaction Paper

Nitzia González
Dietrich et al.’s article “Attempts, Successes, and Failures of Distance Learning in the
Time of COVID-19” (Journal of Chemical Education, 2021) states how Distance
Education courses were developed to involve students who didn't have prepared
admittance to a school or college had limited hours for course investment, or essentially
disliked the traditional "school" environment. In this model, teachers are facilitators to
support student learning, while students have to develop their own knowledge. This
could be explained by the fact that students can learn at their own pace when they
want, going back and rereading, skipping, or accelerating. It took decades to build this
model and adapt it to these students. Some works have shown that, on average,
students retain 25−60% of the new material presented when learning online, compared
to only 8−10% in a traditional classroom and require 40−60% less time to learn. The
design of specific study materials for distant students is a key factor for the success of
this model. In the case of COVID-19, the abrupt choice to force lockdown obliged
teachers and students to remain at home, accordingly initiating imbalances for both. In
any case, a portion of these students need to share their device (computer or cellphone)
or connection time with other relatives, which lessens their functioning time for ongoing
internet learning and leads them to work on courses on-request. Essentially, teachers'
functioning conditions are variable, contingent upon their own convenience, their
admittance to the home organization, the arrangement and limitations of their nuclear
family, and the resources accessible to them at home.
One of my reactions to this article is how distance education model has evolved through
years. Social and political advances, the need to train to enter the world of work, the
lack of conventional systems adapted to the changes of current life and the unstoppable
growth of the sciences of education and technology have made possible the
development of distance education around the world. However, distance education has
gone through an incredible evolution until reaching what we know today. With the
advent of writing and the invention of the printing press gave way to the emergence of
correspondence education. Next, the use of the media was put to the benefit of
education and with this scenario we could already have the start of the modality.
Another point that I want to highlight is the demand for distance education. This has
increased thanks to overcrowding, the demographic explosion and the democratization
of studies. In addition, due to some events such as the great wars, revolutions or
pandemic like the current one prompted some societies directly affected by them to
seek new accessible and efficient educational paths.Besides, this model has benefited
some people who lived in areas far from conventional educational centers, especially in
rural areas, made up underserved layers of the population without the possibility of
having an education, emigrants, housewives, inmates, among others. For this reason, it
became necessary to create institutions available to these groups or adapt existing
ones to meet this new demand.
I have also found that Dietrich et al.’s idea that the COVID-19 pandemic has been
generating changes and disruptions in education worlwide highlights the challenge of
many countries to face this situation. Education has been one of the most affected due
to the administrative imposition of the total closure of educational centers in most of the
countries of the world. The distance education modality, fundamentally in digital
support, came to offer emergency solutions to this crisis. It is a fact that the closure of
educational centers caused by COVID-19 has increased the inequality of opportunities,
particularly in those families that have low socio-cultural and economic capital. Access
to technology and materials needed to continue studying while schools are closed is
notably uneven. Similarly, children who do not have sufficient help to study at home
have little means to facilitate their education. Providing a diversity of educational tools
and expanding internet access is essential. These new emerging scenarios invite us to
rethink education not only in formal settings, but also in informal and non-formal settings
for education. However, this has not been easy for educational institutions given that a
face-to-face modality has prevailed in recent years, and where non-face-to-face
modalities were considered a distant option for many of them.
In conclusion, Distance Education effectively reduces the obstacles represented by time
and space; methods, techniques and resources are used that increase the productivity
and flexibility of the teaching-learning process. The use of technologies such as radio,
television, video, computer systems of variable complexity and interactive software,
among others, constitute new signs of the validity and origin of the principles that
support education for all. It is necessary to promote a different way of transferring
knowledge that favor a greater role for students in their own learning.