Home Education Research

Posts Tagged ‘Environment’

Personally I would date long distance learning to the 3rd and 4th century BC. I know that there are many among us that will scoff at this but I think my arguments are strong and the evidence for them a matter of Western Civilization’s public record. Long distance learning is by modern terms an “on-line” experience. Many colleges of today use technology to extend their influence and educational opportunities beyond their campuses.
This endeavor, so narrowly defined, is older than the Internet because of the use of Public Television courses offered in conjunction with colleges in the late 1970′s.Now one could argue that the art or technology of translation was the first enabling technology; however the discovery of the Rosetta Stone was a fairly modern discovery though created in antiquity. I believe that my dating long distance learning to the 3rd or 4th century is more accurate do to its influence and therefore the actual act of teaching at a distance of time and language to be a credible point of view.
It is interesting that the technology of these ancient centuries seems so common place that writing hardly qualifies as technology any more. But the fact remains we can read Aristotle and Plato today. We could even gaze upon “The Book of Kells” and read directly from this 7th century book. But when we tried to read the Gemini project tapes we found we had to reinvent the software to read it and found most of it degraded to the point of not being able to be retrieved from the electronic form. Makes you wonder whose technology was designed to endure and which technology was the product of an instant gratification society. One will be with us a hundred years from now; the other, like so many of the day to day things that sustained them, will simply be thrown away.