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International Correspondence Schools
This school was founded to provide training for immigrant coal miners. From 2500 enrollment in 1894,to 900,000 in1906. Unfortunately on 2.6% of students actually finished the course. I chose this event to start the timeline. There are many reasons distance education came about. I find it interesting that correspondence courses started as a way for workers to improve their position. Correspondence took place throughout the world, but leveraging it into an education was a true game changer. -
University of Queensland establishes the Department of Correspondence Studies
Because Australia is so large and lightly populated the University of Queensland used correspondence courses to teach students. Distance education was not just a phenomenon of Europe and the Americas, it was a global movement. -
USSR issues literature for the purposes of self-education
I'm adding this event because it shows the USSR attempting to give the population the opportunity for educational advancement. Some titles include: School at Home, The People’s Home University, The Workers’ School at Home, Prepare for a Higher Educational Institution, The Workers’ Technicum at Home, and Study by Yourself.
This is another attempt to make education accessible.
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Correspondence+Education -
The International Conference for Correspondence Education
This is an important event in that the goal was to provide individualized education for students, at low cost, by using a pedagogy of testing, recording, classification, and differentiation. I think they were trying to legitimize and validate the value of Correspondence Education.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distance_education#cite_note-13 -
Gayle Childs studies the application of television instruction in combination with correspondence study.
I'm adding this event because Childs concluded that "television instruction is not a method. Television is an instrument by means of which instruction can be transmitted from one place to another" (Almenda, 1988). Childs also found no appreciable differences in regular classrooms by means of television, or by a combination of correspondence study and television (Almenda, 1988). " http://www.seniornet.org/edu/art/history.html -
Sunrise Semester is on the air
Sunrise Semester 9/9/57 thru 8.1.82 was one of the first examples of telecourses. It was produced by CBS at the New York University. The courses were aired at 6 am Eastern time. The educational broadcasting movement eventually gave rise to public television. The show ended in 1982 when CBS determined that morning news shows were more desirable. I believe that this is an important element of the time line because of the innovation of delivering one hour courses at a time student could watch. -
The Open University founded
This University was established to widen acces to a high quality education in higher education through the use of television. Classes started in 1971. The television courses were broadcast by the BBC. I'm adding this event because it indicates the acceptance of televised education globally. They are working in collaborations and partnerships to bring education around the world. -
Holographic Projection Technologies of the Future:
The paper “Holographic Projection Technologies of the Future: “Killer Applications” (Winslow, 2007), proposes that holographic technologies will support a Virtual Teacher’s Aid. Avatars are currently used to assist kids in eLearning. We have instructors creating virtual settings of books, it is only time when we have a discussion with a virtual Plato.
