Egon, Google on distance learning. There is a wealth of disparate distance learning situations ranging from simple to complex. You can earn accredited degrees via distance learning via the web. The web is a very powerful force for training and education. Distance learning was one of my topics of interest during my last stint in grad school ( Instructional Technology San Diego State Univeresity 1994) and in my job for the last several years prior to retirement. It was one of the things I pushed for prior to my retirement. I tried to sell it to varying levels of Navy and DoD. You have to have an educated and interested sales prospect because of the way technology is integrated into the process.
I set the stage for distance learning to be used in several Navy situations (I worked in a DoD lab under Navy control. We had a civilian technical director but a Navy Captain as Commanding Officer.)
Everything you have mentioned from one on one mentoring to group classes via networked computers (local net or WWW) has been done. You said. "There just have to be some such systems already in operation. " You have made a very correct assumption and if you Googled on distance learning and or distance education or whatever you would see a wealth of different applicatioins of distance learning.
In the Navy (and othere situations) it is costly to send someone to a school. Maybe you lose his service onboard a ship which can be a bad thing plus the cost of flying him to the school, putting him up, and on and on. Schedulling can be a nightmare. If a course can be taken via a computer, either canned or live interactive from the ship via internet satellite connectivity, you save all lthe costs of logistics that ensue from the physical dislocation plus your guy is still on board to consult with anyone about his specialty and if the ballon goes up, he is there to man his watch station.
One of my early Navy jobs was with the Fleet Combat Training Center, Pacific. I designed and help program a courseware authoring system for Navy instructors to use to design and author training materials to be presented by computer onboard ship. THis was for certain warfighting systems operated by folks called OS (Operational Specialists who direct air ops and get to help shoot things down with other weapons on board) Anyway different versions had to be supplied to every platform (ship) which is a configuratioin control challenge and extra work. If the courseware was hosted on a website and accessed from anywhere in the world via the net it woud have simplified the process a big bunch but one of the Navy mottos is "over two hundred years of tradition, unencumbered by progress." This sort of training started prior to good internet connectivity and continued in this fashion due to inertia as much as anything else.
The traditioin/progress comment is supposed to be funny but sometimes wasn't.
Did you see the movie, "Blast From the Past?" Your comments like "Perhaps the University of the future." and questions regarding distance learning remind me of the main character.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
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