By Howell Williams, Kentucky.com
The e-learning trend is established. But how do we sustain it as the opportunity for unfettered access to education that it is? In a word: broadband. It is an unfortunate irony that many of the rural Kentucky communities that could most benefit from online education lack the Internet access to achieve it. By expanding wireless broadband availability to more rural areas, we can present more Kentucky residents with online education opportunities. We can also ensure that those pursuing online learning have the best new technologies at their disposal. Improved and expanded broadband access is touted as a goal of politicians on both the national and state levels. But the private sector also offers opportunities for expansion, in line with the political goals. T-Mobile and AT&T, for example, currently have proposed a plan to merge. If approved, the merger will allow the combined company to extend its 4G Long-Term Evolution system — the most advanced network type available — to areas that currently do not have access. An expansion of that magnitude could be significant for Kentucky’s educational institutions, both traditional and online.
http://www.kentucky.com/2011/07/09/1805395/online-learning-requires-broadband.html
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