Effectively, the basis of the innovation in the use of computers in education has been to serve two separate purposes: computers provide new opportunities as learning aids; but, computers are also used to assist in distance education, whose existence long predated their advent. One of the earliest attempts took place between the early eighteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century, where courses in short hand were offered by correspondence (B\u00f6rje, 2005; Moore & Kearsley, 2005). The University of London was the first university to offer distance learning degrees in 1858 (Sheldon, et al., 1998).<\/p>\n
However, a crucial limitation persisted, being dependent on mail correspondence, which was slow and expensive. The advent of film in the 1920s and radio in the 1930s, provided unique opportunities to bridge the gap, leading to attempts to adopt their use for distance education (Cuban, 1986; Stuart, 2017). In 1948, when the University of Louisville teamed up with NBC to use radio as a medium for distance education, the chairman of the FCC endorsed the project and predicted that the “college-by-radio” would put “American education 25\u00a0years ahead” (Dwayne & Morison, 2000). In the late 1950s, Physicist Daniel Q. Posin pioneered a televised course through DePaul University (Vyse, 2017).<\/p>\n
Fundamentally, these were forms of one-way communication. The phone would provide an opportunity for instantaneous vocal communication. But, it was the Internet that finally answered the missing factors, by not only providing instantaneous feedback, but also the ability to share visual and auditory material at a distance.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
References<\/strong><\/p>\n Cox, Dwayne D., & Morison, William J., (2000). The University of Louisville<\/em>. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.<\/p>\n Holmberg, B\u00f6rje (2005). The evolution, principles and practices of distance education<\/em>. Bibliotheks-und Informationssystem der Universitat Oldenburg.<\/p>\n Larry Cuban. (1986). Teachers and Machines: The Classroom Use of Technology Since 1920<\/em>. New York: Teachers College Press.<\/p>\n Moore, Michael G.; Greg Kearsley (2005). Distance Education: A Systems View<\/em> (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.<\/p>\n Rothblatt, Sheldon; Muller, Detlef K.; Ringer, Fritz; Simon, Brian; Bryant, Margaret; Roach, John; Harte, Negley; Smith, Barbara; Symonds, Richard (1988). Supply and Demand: The “Two Histories” of English Education”. History of Education Quarterly<\/em>, 28(4): 627\u201344. doi:10.2307\/368852.<\/p>\n