by Max Gallo

Created on: July 05, 2007

I challenge you to find any higher education course today that does not require the use of the Internet in some form or another, if you can. The truth of the matter is that the Internet has allowed education to be accessible to many more people than it would have been accessible to just ten years ago.

The Internet has afforded us vast improvements in efficiency for that form of education called "distance education". In the past it used to be managed via mail, radio and later television. In the Australian outback it also spawned the pedal radio (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedal_radio ) which was used for schooling, and may I add perhaps of keeping fit - perhaps there is a market for pedal operated flat-screen TVs; but I digress. Today with e-mail, learning management systems, blogs and synchronous tools most educational institutions are venturing into this arena.

Educational institutions of all types - from the very finest see MIT's on-line programs to the outright shonky, everyone wants to get onto this bandwagon. There are now learning approaches called:
"Distance learning" which is what it used to be in the past - a student at a distance from the learning institution for whatever reason (distance to travel, costs, convenience, etc.).
"Blended learning" which is a growing model in overcrowded university courses. This model requires the learner to do a part of the course on-line - it being mandatory to do it on-line. This model lifts some of the pressures of the "old" tutorials in very large courses.
"Flexible learning" which is a model that allows the learner to do the educational unit either on-line or face-to-face.
In many ways all of these models are somewhat overlapping, but do bring unique and innovative solutions to certain educational issues previously almost insurmountable.

A couple of examples of "insurmountable problems" that have been overcome that I am aware of are:
Firstly, in the middle east, in Dubai in particular, today there are many educational institutions that can allow both males and females to interact during a course while physically being on separate campuses - a cultural requirement. Another example is an on-line political science simulation class run at an Australian university where the participants (students) do not know who is in which role - The example being a very quiet Asian female student in the role of the reserve bank governor of Australia performing outstandingly well against all the other role-players, many of whom were western males (perceived to be much tougher). Had that role-play been done face-to-face it would not have worked a it did.

In conclusion, I would venture a guess that we have yet to even scratch the surface of the effects that the Internet has had, is having and will have on education, not least of which the potential it has to provide education to vast numbers of people - perhaps the key to getting the third world and developing world to catch up with the so called first world - it may just make it one world.

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