U1: Activity 1.2

Hello guys, these are the definitios of Distance Education and Open Education according to what I read (and I think most of you) and to what I have read before.

What is Open Education?

When I first read that, because of its great amount of definitions, instead of explaining what Open Education is, we need to explain what it is not, I totally disagreed with this thought. We can explain many things that are not Open Education; however, it does not mean that these things are going to help us to define Open Education. Then , I understood that Open Education cannot be define in a single statement, but rather it needs a set of statements that work together to get and accurate definition. These statements are: a) Students can choose the educational activities they want to do. B) The environment must have many educational possibilities. C) Instructions must be clear for every single student. These instructions must be based on what students want to do. D) Teachers must respect students and vice versa.

What is Distance Education?

I would define Distance Education as the education in which a figure of “teacher” is not in front of the student. I could be a course where the student is in front of his computer in Mexico City while the teacher giving the course is in London, but it could also be a course where the both, student and teacher are in the same city, or even in the same school. In other words, it is an Education where the teachers´ control over the student is “open.”