Re: Distance Learning and Copyright

In the age of euphemisms in which the garbageman is a "sanitation engineer" and a sales clerk is a "customer service inventory expert" could distance learning be the new name for "correspondence school?"

Nothing beats face to face contact, especially at a time when people spend very little time actually interacting with people in person and nearly all of their time in front of computer screens, on cell phones, and in their cars.

The technology to allow students to take courses away from school has been around for a long time. Why is it that, in the past, very few institutions gave their students a pile of videotapes to be watched at home in place of a course, with instructions to call or write to the professor with querstions? Why, because part of the learning experience is direct communication IN PERSON. The distance learning movement arose at a time when the Internet was viewed as something that would forever change every aspect of every person's life.

With the collapse of almost everything except for Amazon, eBay, and some informational sites, itr should now be realized that the Internet is not the best thing since sliced bread. It is great for some shopping. It is great for quickly ontaining information, but it is not a substitute for most activities, including university education.

HAPPY NEW YEAR ! Michael Landau
Profesor of Law
Georgia State University
Atlanta, GA 30303 Received on Thu Jan 02 2003 - 17:47:03 GMT