This places distance learning at a great advantage to traditional educational systems.
After learning new information, the student must then move on to the development of logical reasoning, and use newly acquired information in combination with pre-existing knowledge to come to new conclusions. Distance learning can provide students with this opportunity. Of course, there is a danger in the distance-learning environment that students will simply be asked to regurgitate facts or figures. However, this danger is not unique to distance-learning, and can occur in any type of learning environment. Competent distance educators go beyond asking students "what?" And ask them "why?" By challenging students to address why things happen, educators in any environment help students synthesize knowledge and learn their reasoning skills.
Finally, distance education provides students with a way to acquire
Unlike the traditional educational environments, distance education forces students to be completely personally accountable for their educations. Students must arrange the time to study their coursework, turn in their assignments in a timely manner, and approach their professors with any questions or issues. Unlike a traditional learning environment, the lack of one-on-one interaction means that students have to be more personally accountable.
Education includes three main components: the acquisition of knowledge, the development of logical reasoning, and the acquisition of maturity. While its methods of imparting those components may differ from the methods used in more traditional educational venues, distance learning does provide students with the opportunity to develop in those three key areas. Therefore, James Barzcz's position that computer generated course work is merely the "mechanistic acquisition of information," is incorrect. While that may be true in a poorly designed distance-learning course, it is equally true in a poorly designed traditional-learning course.
