Distance Education

Distance education, also referred to as distance learning, is a way to deliver education to those students who are not physically on site. It dates back to the early 1700s in London, where the University of London was the first university to offer distance learning degrees and it soon spread to other areas of the world. Distance education can take many forms including, mail, Internet, broadcast via TV or radio, CD-ROM or through a mobile device. The most common usage of distance education that I have seen is where the student and teacher are separated and the separation gap is bridged through the use of online technologies-like online courses. There are many advantages to distance learning like the fact that it allows you to work at your own pace, it is beneficial to adults who are trying to continue schooling but cannot physically attend a university, it also helps students who attend small schools and want to take an AP course but otherwise wouldn’t be able too. Some would argue that there are many disadvantages as well. Distance education definitely requires self-motivation, but if you’ve got that then online schooling can be very beneficial under certain circumstances.

As this concept is more for the educational environment, I don’t see it being very useful in my field of telecommunications. Obviously, as a reporter, I won’t really be teaching anyone anything, but the overall idea of the distance communication could be applied in general to my field. Communication is a huge part of my major, if not the most important part, and so if I were trying to communicate with someone who was not physically on site with me, I could use the same resources that distance education uses to get a message across to someone in a distant place.

This video that I found on distance education takes us through the history of distance education, all the way up to today. I think it clearly explains all the outlets of distance learning and how this type of learning, that provides so many more opportunities for those with challenging geographical and economical situations, is only going to continue in the future.