Online education is here to stay and more and more schools are recognizing its importance in educating future generations.

The Harvard Crimson writes "At a recent round-table discussion with students, President Summers pledged to expand the for-credit distance education programs currently offered through the Harvard Extension School. As an alumnus of the Extension School and an adjunct professor at a community college, I have no objection to non-traditional venues of higher education. I also understand and appreciate the educational potential afforded by the Internet. Nevertheless, I must part company with the outgoing President on the issue of Internet education at Harvard.

The offering of Internet courses for university credit provokes a question fundamental to the existence of formal education in the contemporary world: Why do we need formal education at all in a society in which technologies such as the printing press the, Internet, and cable television theoretically enable one to educate oneself? Although one can, of course, learn much through self-education, the process of learning alone in one’s living room or at the reading room of the local public library is fundamentally different from that which one undertakes through formal study at an institution of higher learning."