Bobby And The Bee
...Education Association, 2002). Historically, distance education meant written correspondence using the U.S. Post Office as the carrier (Emmons, 1999). Correspondence courses have been offered by colleges since the late 1800's. Traditional distance learning has tended to be correspondence-based and individually oriented. Print-based and delivered through the mail, correspondence was the first medium through which colleges in the United States could provide distance education, or what is now usually called independent study. Correspondence or independent study in the United States dates back to 1892, when the University of Chicago was established. During the following three decades a number of post secondary institutions, mainly state universities, opened correspondence study offices. These offices used videotapes, slides, and other ancillary materials (Pittman, 1987; Moore, 1973).
According to Peters (1983), correspondence study offices depended upon an efficient mail service. During the 1920's and 1930's, several dozen U.S. colleges and universities tried to implement courses via radio. Thirteen colleges offered academic credit via radio. These schools failed totally. By 1940, all had discontinued their radio courses (Atkinson, 1941). Although some successful programs have been developed, radio today still has not become an important factor in distance education because the
level of interactivity practiced with this type of delivery is very slow (Chute, Thompson, & Hancock, 1999).
Another medium in distance education is television. It was predicted in 1934 that television would be an effective instrument in the educational system (Kurtz, 1934). But fifty years later television did not deliver what it had promised (Coffman, 2001).
While distance learning through the mail, radio and television has an extensive history, newer technologies such as digital...
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