subject: Distance Does Not Make The Mind Wander [print this page] The concept of distance education dates way back to the 18th Century. An enterprising person named Caleb Philipps advertised in the Boston Gazette an offer to Teach a new method of short hand, even to people who could not make it to his classes. He offered to mail the lessons to the prospective students, and they could pursue the course sitting at home itself. Thus was born the first ever concept of distance education. Little did he realize how far his unique concept would be carried forward far into the future.
Phillipps was soon followed by Sir Isaac Pitman (knighted in the year 1894) who used Great Britains penny post to impart his knowledge to willing students. The first of his courses to be offered was a pamphlet entitled Sound-Hand. His lessons were so popular that the enrolments increased manifold and at one point there were more secretaries than secretarial positions that were available. It was much later that some semblance of order was incorporated when the Illinois Wesleyan University offered the option of enrolling for courses through distance education. Thomas J Foster founded the International Correspondence Schools which became the largest study-at-home school at that point of time. The University of Wisconsin was the first to use the term distance education and went on to found the University of Wisconsin Extension which was the first of its kind. However, it t still took the prospective students, days on end to receive the study material that used to be mailed to them. The mailbags were usually transported on horseback. The entire process was tedious and cumbersome as the students had to remit the payments first and then receive confirmation of enrolment and wait for the deliveries from the mailman.
It was almost a half a century later that the University of Houston offered the first televised classes with telecasts that ran from 13 to 15 hours per week. Most courses were aired during the night to enable working students to watch the programs as well. This feature attracted more students which resulted in a third of the programming being devoted to education. In 1956, Harvey White, a physics professor produced hundreds of school physics lessons and each 30 minute lesson was filmed and distributed to recipients numbering over 100,000. The enormous economies of scale were to be witnessed much later in online education.
Technological advances and the advent of internet revolutionized distance education and the real benefit started reaching every nook and corner of the country. The only requirement was the need to be hooked up to the Internet. With a broad educational system in place, there are hundreds of diplomas, degrees, and post graduate courses that are being offered by universities worldwide. Millions of young men and women who would otherwise never have been able to acquire a formal education by going to college have been able to get their degrees in their respective subjects, thanks to services like Verizon FiOS Internet that has ensured that most of the remote areas are well connected to High Speed Internet.
The one thing that internet has ensured is that education need have no bounds at all, barring a few specialized courses like medicine and other related subjects where distance education may not be feasible. In the lighter vein, it would be pointless if a course in swimming were to be offered online. A person could easily come out with flying colors as far as the theoretical part is concerned, however when it comes to actually getting into the water, he or she would probably end up floating in the pool lifeless.
