An initial ad hoc approach to analysis of distance learning
versus traditional brick and mortar education.
Right now brick and mortar (B&M) is ahead.
* History- B&M * Flexibility- distance learning * Respect
earned by grads- B&M * Ease of learning- distance learning *
Honor amongst peers- B&M * Established and accepted training
format- B&M * Cost- distance learning * Diploma as an aid in job
search- B&M.
This is a static view. One factor that influences the balance
against distance learning is the effort by distance learning
schools to try to copy the B&M educational model. Distance
learning by its nature must accomplish the primary task using
other methods. B&M will always be better at being B&M.
I have known many students that took the easy path at B&M
schools; find the easiest teachers, in the easiest courses, in
the simplest discipline. I have known students at both B&M and
distance learning schools that had others do required work for
them.
Outside of ethics, there are at least two factors that made this
a viable strategy for a student. First, jobs acquired after
graduation had little to do with what they supposedly studied.
They were hired for their degree and grades, and expected
training to prepare them for their new job. Second, the reason
they went to school was to get a good job, actual learning had
little to do with their goal for receiving an education.
There are of course many entries on the other side of the
ledger, There are large numbers of students at B&M and distance
learning schools that study very hard, do their own work, and
apply diligence toward their education. But for most of them it
is the same goal that drives them, they want a good job upon
graduation.
Education, a degree, and a good job have become synonymous.
Seeking knowledge, learning new and useful things, is at best
secondary in the modern educational equation. Few students would
risk harming their grade point average to take a class just to
learn something.
At this progression; education, degree, good job, the B&M
schools are without equal. Distance learning is a dubious second
place, and has lesser value because of its lack of ability to
compete directly on B&M turf.
Just 30 years ago the plan was simple. Get a degree, get a job
at IBM or equivalent, never leave and they would never lay you
off. You would be well paid, be forced to travel and move, and
you worked toward retirement after 40 years. That model no
longer works. Current Graduates are forced to put government in
place of IBM, they are not very well paid, they will work in a
painfully degrading bureaucracy, but they can still anticipate a
reliable job with a decent retirement.
The next 10 to 30 years and beyond are going to be very tough on
this newer model. We are likely to go through a series of deep
recessions and maybe a greater depression. Government is going
to down size and privatize, they will have to. B&M universities
are therefore graduating workers looking for jobs that are
disappearing.
Now that you are depressed, let me cheer you up with the good
news.
Learning will become an all life experience, and it will be a
pleasure. The same technologies that are dismantling bloated
industrial age institutions will liberate work. You can start
your own business very cheaply, you can re-train frequently for
ever better opportunities. The liberating influence of
renaissance education will become the new, new thing.
If you pursue your passions, learning is a by product, not a
short term goal. You will not spend time, money, and lost
opportunity jumping through bureaucratic hoops to get a degree.
You will learn as you pursue your passion, this is the model of
the new renaissance education. You will research what you want
to know, seek out what is of value to you, and you can use
knowledge acquired to create wealth.
"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it
away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best
interest." - Benjamin Franklin
Your best investment in a wonderful personal future will be an
investment in yourself. Visit
http://silentpc.org/university/revivere.php to learn more about
your personal renaisance.
If you work at what you love, at what you are passionate about,
you will never experience a dull job. This is why BFU exists.
Liberate yourself from constrictions of the fading industrial
age, seek out and discover where meaningful action based on your
passion is rewarded.
About the author:
Allan Wallace is the Founder of Silent Partner Consulting and
the Rector of both Junior Partner Ministries and Bastiat Free
University. http://www.silentpc.org/aboutus.php#Biography "The
risks and rewards for you from creative entrepreneurship are
greater, and of far more value to society, than illusions of
security that enslave a human cog in a social machine."
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