Distance learning is popularly known as open education and is defined as a way of learning from remote location and flexible time. This kind of learning is attributed with various features like electronic classrooms, computer aided instructions and audio-visual communications.

Distance Education is an age old concept of learning that is believed to have started in the western world. The advent of this concept came into picture with the need to create effectual human capital by abolishing the obstacles of physical accessibility, geographical location and time barriers. This need was further driven by population explosion, science and innovative technology.

Today, many distance learning programs have come into the educational arena including MBA, MMA, BBA, BBM, Advertising, Public Relation and Teacher Training. Many colleges and universities round the world have paved way for this kind of learning and education. In India, distance learning program became viable when Kothari D.S in 1964 suggested for the establishing Directorate of Distance Education in Delhi University. This establishment brought a major breakthrough in the educational system of India.

Thereafter, many colleges and universities in and around India started various correspondence courses for betterment of human capital. Open universities and institutes offering these courses have led to a paradigm shift from time-honored full time courses to flexible self learning courses. This system of learning also helps an individual to fight and win the real world competition.
Many of these curses are now available online. On line availability of various courses gives ability to students to learn and grasp at their own pace and time. They also provide opportunity to discuss and solve various study related problems through online tutorials.
The flexibility in course choices is also expanded for having broader range of qualifications. You will be amazed to hear that these days online foreign language classes are also conducted. These languages help an individual to raise his or her potential in the job market. French, being the international language of business, has wide range of online sources. Every street, area, country and various online sources are conducting French classes today.

However there are some drawbacks also. You cannot have face to face interactions or virtual communication with peers and tutors. You will have restricted social circle as you are not moving out and meeting new people belonging to different sections of the society. You also have limited access for tutor discussion as they are not available every time you want them.
Home learning can also be associated with distractions that can hamper the learning process. Quality of course materials and video conferences varies considerably from course to course.
There are disadvantages but none of advantages can be overlooked. So, if you are self motivated and eager to learn, then nothing can stop you gaining a degree or certification through distance learning program. Learn to face challenges and this concept of learning can be very rewarding and fruitful for your successful career.

1.Book Repair: The Parker Fastback 15xs binding machine is a great option for schools that are looking to repair damaged soft cover and hard cover books. You can use a Fastback system to add a new wrap around printed cover to a soft cover book. You can also rebind the contents of a hard cover book and place them in a new hard case or glue them in the old hard cover. Many school libraries also use their Fastback Binding machine to strengthen the bind on their trade paperback books. By running every paperback through a binding cycle before it is placed on the shelf, you can in many cases double the shelf life of these books. School libraries spend a huge amount of money every year replacing paperback books that are worn out and have pages coming out. The fastback binding system can help you save on some of those costs.

2.Downloadable Content: More and more providers of school curriculum and book publishers are offering access to websites with downloadable content. With a Fastback binding system you can quickly and easily turn those downloads, e-books, curriculum supplements and other materials in to printed bound documents. This is a great way provide an added service to your teachers and your students. These materials can be printed and bound on demand and can easily be added as volumes to your collection for use in future years.

3.Yearbook Creation: For small and medium sized schools, the cost of having an outside service print and bind a yearbook for you can be astronomical. In fact, the cost is so high that many smaller schools simply don’t produce yearbooks. However, with a Powis Parker Fastback binding system you can have students print and bind their own yearbooks. Many schools have successfully turned the production, printing and binding of their yearbook into a leadership development project for their students. The cost savings of producing the yearbook in house will usually pay for the equipment the first year and offer substantial savings in following years.

4.Student Publishing: Having a Fastback Binding machine in your school makes it easier than ever for students and classes to publish their own bound and printed books. Many schools around the world already use Fastback to allow their students to publish their own poems, short stories, essays and reports. These written works can be published with tape binding, perfect binding or can even be added to a hard cover book or anthology. Some of your classes may even decide to publish their own book as a fund raiser to sell to the parents.

5.Out of Print Materials: With a Fastback binding system libraries can have a whole new world opened up to them when it comes to out of print or public domain materials. Librarians can download, print and bind books that are in the public domain, rare, out-of-print or super specialized. These books can be bound and printed for addition to your library’s collection.

When in the spring of 1983 the education reform movement declared war on the “rising tide of mediocrity,” I wrote that “out of this bombardment [of recommendations from task forces] could come a higher standard of education so that 20 years down the road people might say it was education’s finest hour.”[1] I expressed my optimism in Churchillian phrases. Yet, as we have progressed down the road to reform, I see little evidence that we are going to accomplish much of what began with such promise.

I retain my overall optimism for education because I believe in the professionalism of educators. There is hope for the future of education if we heed the warnings of so many outstanding educators who say that only by understanding how teachers practice their profession can we ever hope to make real change in schools. Instead of taking into account the expertise of classroom teachers, the reformers of the past decade overwhelmed teachers with mandates, directives, innovations, and fads. A great wealth of teacher experience was ignored. The reform movement was – and still is – mainly driven by top-down decisions.

In recent years all provinces in Canada have forged ahead with various kinds of education reform. The situation has come to such a pass that teachers – fearing for their professionalism if not for their sanity – are beginning to say that enough is enough. The teachers of Alberta are speaking out loud and clear.

Thousands of Alberta teachers have made their voices heard in Trying to Teach.[2] This 27-page document is the report of the Committee on Public Education and Professional Practice, established by a resolution of the 1992 Annual Representative Assembly (ARA) of the Alberta Teachers’ Association. The committee’s mandate was “to develop and publicize a comprehensive position on and strategies for dealing with the combination of emerging trends in curriculum, methodology, and organization, which are imposing unsound educational practices on teachers and creating conflicting and unreasonable expectations of public education.”

The Alberta teachers were concerned about the rash of “solutions” being proposed for the problems of education – solutions that are sometimes politically motivated and sometimes pushed by administrators who want to give the appearance of being on the cutting edge of reform. One major concern expressed by the delegates debating the ARA resolution was that teachers and their professional association had little or no input into the myriad changes bemg undertaken.

Therefore, the committee sent invitations to all schools in Alberta, requesting that teachers and/or school staffs submit their responses to a list of recent trends or innovations taking place. The committee also sought the recommendations of superintendents, deans of faculties of education, and other educators. A total of more than 200 submissions were received, representing among them the opinions of more than 3,000 teachers.

Trying to Teach passionately and eloquently documents teachers’ responses to eight problematic innovations imposed on schools either by the provincial department of education or by school districts. These eight trends deal with integration of students with special needs into regular classes, results-based curriculum, program continuity, continuous progress, individual education plans, increased external testing, portfolio assessment, and mission statements. Many of the teachers were not opposed to change or reform – not even to the specific trends mentioned above. They saw some of them as good in theory but thought that “through lack of support of faulty implementation [they] may be unsound in practice as a result, or unworkable in their combined impact.”

Each of the eight trends is dealt with separately in the report, and the combined effects are considered as well because of their interrelated nature. The development that caused greatest concern among teachers was the notion of “integration of students with special needs.” Many teachers expressed “absolute support” for this goal but identified critical problems in implementation.

Larry Booi, an outstanding teacher who chaired the committee, pointed out that, given proper support, teachers would gladly accept many changes in their classrooms that would benefit teaching and learning. Booi observed that in general the teachers’ comments opposing some of the changes were made in the context of dedication to teaching and commitment to children. Many reformers and innovators complain that teachers resist change. But Booi does not agree:

We did not hear from the mass of teachers that they were opposed to change. Rather, they were opposed to meaningless change – that is, change that did not lead to improvements in instruction or that made it more difficult to meet the needs of children. They were opposed to changes that were perceived to be based on administrative whim or political expediency. Show them something that will improve their professional practice and that can be reasonably accomplished in their classrooms, and they will adopt it. But it must be their choice as professionals.

The report and two recommendations were presented to the 1993 ARA. The committee recommended that the ARA develop a comprehensive position on public education and professional practice according to the following principles: significant reductions in expectations placed on public education; recognition of the professionalism of teachers and of their right to make choices and judgments in the interests of their students; efficient school organization that recognizes the constraints of group instruction and the reasonable limits to individualization; provision of necessary supports for all introduced changes; opportunities and resources to help teachers refine and perfect instructional techniques; a model for implementing changes under controlled conditions and subject to independent evalution; and the restoration of balance in such areas as the integration of special students and student assessment. Probably the most important principle on which the implementation of change in education depends is “systematic and meaningful input by teachers, individually, in groups, and through their association” on matters that have an effect on their professional practice.

The committee also recommended that an action plan be developed and implemented to provide teachers and their association with an organized framework for promoting and achieving these changes. The 450 ARA delegates who represent 30,000 teachers unanimously approved the committee’s recommendations. They also approved – even in a period of fiscal restraint – $50,000 for the committee to carry on its work. The ongoing work of this committee will have far-reaching effects of the nature of teaching, not only in Alberta but in all of Canada.