I attended a talk today given by the local campus manager of online learning. He said the term "distance learning" is becoming less used and "online learning" gaining popularity. In a couple of blinks, someone asks if online learning is as good as going into a classroom with other students, sometimes called "face-to-face" and sometimes called "hands-on learning". In general, it is frowned upon for the teacher to put hands on the students.
I did quite a bit of teaching on closed television setups. When I was told that graduate students who were teachers could have a set-up where they could see and hear me in their school ninety miles away, I jumped at the chance to use such an arrangement. Losing students to death in a car/deer crash is not a good way to educate. People teaching all day are not going to enjoy driving 90 miles, sitting in a discussion or lecture for 2 ½ hours and then driving 90 miles home. Sure, participating in the Wisconsin supper club tradition, enjoying venison, steak or fish and a cold beer is fun but the drive and the weather and the wildlife can be dangerous or worse.
Many people today, including me, have little idea of how well minds work at age 30 if they have not been to 12 or more years of school. Public schools in America started in 1635 but
While some Northeastern communities had already established publicly funded or free schools by the late 1780s, the concept of free public education did not begin to take hold on a wider scale until the 1830s. The new federal government provided encouragement and support for establishing public schools.
History and Evolution of Public Education in the US - ERIC
Most of us were not alive before public schools in this country so it can be a surprise to find out that some people are good thinkers and talkers without attending school or after attending a poor one. And, of course, some do get 12 or 16 years of schooling and still struggle with life.
