I read an interesting article today on how the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is celebrating 100 years of being a distance education provider. The thing about distance education is that it really isn’t a new concept. I’m actually surprised that given the amount of time some schools and organizations have been involved in distance education that it’s still controversial to some less than enlightened individuals (especially those working in higher education). Another example is the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) is nearly as old as an accrediting agency created specifically for distance education (as the name implies) founded in 1926. There are of course other schools that have been doing this for decades if not almost a century, some more successfully than others. For example Cornell University attempted distance education in 1883 without any success, though I think they’re more successful now.
Most of people think of distance education as primarily an online invention. The funny thing is prior to that there was the tried and true paper and pencil type of correspondence, which I myself have done and I actually enjoyed. Historically there have been educational offerings in radio correspondence (no kidding) and of course television, film of various sorts such as VHS and DVD courses which some of are still in use.
Also noteworthy is the fact that distance education is nothing new to our armed forces. My own grandfather participated in distance learning while serving his military obligation during the Korean War and he wasn’t alone. Even though distance education is gaining more and more acceptance by the day, I have to ask that for something that has been around since the mid 19th century, why only now?
See more http://www.newsnetnebraska.org/component/content/article/13-campus-news-/671-unl-celebrates-100-years-of-distance-education
http://www.detc.org/about.html
http://www.digitalschool.net/edu/DL_history_mJeffries.html
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring01/deClair/history.html