by Jonathan Robe, Center for College Affordability
A couple of weeks back, NPR’s “All Things Considered” had a segment on the “explosion” of online learning and the implications this will have going forward for higher education. NPR’s Steve Henn, I thought anyway, had an insightful comment about the risk an online learning model would allow someone who is nothing more than a “shut-in, matriculating couch potato” (to use Robert Seigel’s term in the segment) from never leaving his bedroom and yet obtaining a college degree. While that is certainly a legitimate concern (and one of a number of reasons why many people are understandably skeptical of online learning in general), I think Henn’s response was appropos: “while perhaps someday, there may be people who never leave their basement, I think at this point, there are many thousands more people around the world who really, this is a window that opens and allows them to see a bigger, broader piece of the world than they could before.”
http://centerforcollegeaffordability.org/archives/8252
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