Distance learning is a great advance forward in making education more accessible to millions of Americans who would simply not have the time or resources to obtain a college degree or technical certificate. It allows people from all over the country, even in remote or rural areas to plug into technology that lets them learn, at their own speed and on their own time.
But distance learning is not for everyone and some people need the familiar surroundings of a real classroom and a real teacher in order to learn. Thats because our traditional education model features three key components that have proven to be effective in helping to educate large numbers of people. Those components are human teacher expression and explanation, student note-taking based on the teachers presentation, and peer communication between the students that is facilitated by the teacher.
None of these elements are present in distance learning and as a result it becomes a foreign way for students, old or young, to receive and process the information in order to learn.
In order to be successful in distance learning we must find a way to overcome the fact that these traditional elements...