3 Interesting Facts

Three Interesting Facts about Distance Education

The three interesting facts that I found in the Introduction to Distance Education and eLearning article were all found in the historical origins of distance education. It most likely peaked my interest because I teach history at the high school level. I have already learned through the first week of this course to broaden my relatively narrow concept of what distance education is. I used to only think of distance education as what I have experienced through either my COMET courses or the other online courses I had to take to clear my credential. The historical background provided in this article caused me to have to consider that all education, in a sense, is distance education. I found the following three facts about the history of distance education to be particularly interesting.

1. The origins of distance education date back to the informal apprenticeship programs of the 17th century colonial era.

2. The federal government restricted financial support for correspondence schools in the 1950s and began to slowly relax such restrictions beginning in 2002.

3. The U.S. Department of Agriculture developed a network of extension educational activities for farmers through state agricultural colleges.