A century of distance education in the United States

Education - Distance Learning

DISTANCE LEARNING

The Surprising Early History of Distance Education: Generally, when one thinks of the origins of education in the United States, the images that come to mind are those of the classic one-room schoolhouse depicted in popular media since the earliest decades of the 20th century. Another is that of parochial schools and private boarding schools associated with the privileged class. During much of the first half of the 20th century, higher education was hardly part of mainstream American popular culture with the exception of Division I college football. Only in the second half of the century did the idea of aspiring to a college degree become more mainstream than something associated primarily with wealth and privilege.

Probably, relatively few people realize that long before most American institutions of higher learning were even founded, one of the largest sources of higher education in the U.S. was the nascent distance learning system that included the enrollment of 20,000 students in the correspondence courses developed at Cornell between 1903 and 1908. In fact, according to the author, by 1926, the 2 million students enrolled annually in correspondence courses outnumbered all of their colleagues matriculated at all American colleges, universities, and professional schools, combined, by a factor of four.

Possible Avenues of Research:

If presented with the luxury of doing research on any aspect of adult education history, I would be interested in the views, in retrospect, of the adults who had the opportunity to continue their education in youth but chose not to do so at the time.

Specifically, I would be interested in characterizing the reasons for their original decision not to pursue higher education, whether with respect to enrolling in college after high school or with respect to dropping out of high school prior to graduation.

My experimental hypothesis might be that of those who were not forced to suspend their education by economic (or other) necessity, many who became disillusioned by education did so more as a function of the methods (i.e. rote memorization, exclusive reliance on the lecture-based, passive learning model, and rigid adherence to a very narrow academic curricula) rather than by virtue of lack of aptitude.

My research involving individuals who later continued their education as adults would include a survey of the specific methods of instruction they perceived to be most conducive to their achievements and whether those methods differed from traditional methods of academic instruction.

Perspectives on the Future of Distance Learning:

Contrary to the history of distance learning detailed by Pittman, if anything, contemporary students probably assume that distance learning only evolved into a profitable industry since the widespread availability of home computers. That should not be surprising in light of the fact that many are surprised to hear of the extent to which people relied on so-called "snail mail" even for correspondence in decades past; let alone the concept of taking advanced education courses through traditional mail service.

Pittman seems to make a point that relates to the proposed area of hypothetical research (above) in that he criticizes the adherence to the mode of lesson presentation, irrespective of whether the medium involved is face-to-face instruction or computerized lesson module. According to Pittman, expansion of educational efforts to include novel and newer media is a necessary but largely insufficient first step. In many respects, the principal flaws inherent in the traditional concept of education transcends the shift to even the most advanced computer presentation. Specifically, lecture-based lesson presentation is not conducive to the highest retention of student interest, and the limits of passive learning are not substantially improved merely by a shift from paper and pencils to microprocessors and LCD screens. In that respect, Pittman's views are very similar to this writer's in that they both believe that the most fundamental flaws in the traditional educational approach likely can be rectified more directly, not to mention more cheaply, without the expense of computers, necessarily. Conversely, lectures delivered through the lecture method are not necessarily more effective than live lectures. For that reason, it is not unlikely that the proposed hypothetical research into adult learning would reveal that many of those who chose to terminate their education earlier in life did so substantially because they found the lecture method ineffective for them. If many of them acknowledged that they experienced greater success learning from practical experience or from absorbing information from educational programming, for example, that would support Pittman's apparent view that both traditional education and even the most modern distant learning programs still fail to understand the importance of reducing reliance on passive, lecture- based education.