There are a number of teaching modalities available that encourage educators and educational establishments to go beyond the traditional classroom student/teacher learning milieu. These include "Open Learning" and "Distance Education." An example is the international program of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) known as "Open Learning for Development."
Open Learning
"Open Learning" encompasses a number of formats, many of which are based on the educational methods of teaching pioneers like Maria Montessori, founder of the Montessori System. Montessori believed children could and should teach themselves. The first Montessori teacher-training course was started in the United States in 1915. Open Learning in Montessori schools focuses on a pupil-determined curriculum that values individual, independent learning corresponding to the interests of the pupil, under the guidance of a teacher.
Cooperative Learning
Another type of Open Learning was developed by innovative educator Celestin Freinet, who worked on improving teaching methods in France in the 1920s and 1930s. He pioneered what he called "Cooperative Learning," where students had a say in the subjects they learned and the way they learned them.
Open Learning for Development
UNESCO designed "Open Learning for Development" as an Internet-based web portal called the "Open Training Platform." Free training resources are offered worldwide to people in developing countries. The educational focus is on literacy, community development, agriculture, small business creation and development, environmental concerns and computer training. Educational content, overseen by UNESCO, is free and open.
Distance Education
Distance Education is also known as "Distance Learning" or "External" courses. Internet technology is able to help students receive an education who are not able to be physically present at a specific school, whether due to disability or distance. The creation of educational systems designed to serve a worldwide student population is a growing field, and many colleges and universities are beginning to take advantage of it.
Correspondence Courses
Correspondence schools, the origin of the concept of "Distance Education," have been around since the mid-nineteenth century. Isaac Pitman, the founder of the shorthand method of note-taking still practiced today, taught shorthand via correspondence courses beginning in the 1840s. Reliable postal service was the new technology of the time that helped students learn via mail, as the Internet and email help today.
Transactional Distance
The current educational theory behind "Distance Education," known as "Transactional Distance," was set forth by Michael G. Moore in 1972. According to Moore's "Theory of Transactional Distance," three main variables must be considered for Distance Education to work. The variables Moore lists are "dialogue, structure and learner autonomy." Broken down, these include the instructional give and take between teacher and student or "dialogue," the actual "structure" of the course and the "autonomy" or right of individual students to determine and set their own educational goals.
