The Unlimited Possibilities of Distance Education

Distance education may seem like something new, but in fact it has been going on since the 18th century, where lessons were sent in the post on a weekly or monthly basis. The first university degrees to be granted through distance education were as early as the mid-19th century in England. Further developments in off-campus learning occurred in the '60s in the United States and Great Britain. Since the widespread use of personal computers and the internet, the idea of the 'virtual university' has become so common that by 2005 over 3 million students in the US were taking at least one course online. Today, almost every single university and trade school offers courses online, while there are also increasingly more schools popping up that do not even have a physical campus.

You might at first think that while distance learning is a great idea with many advantages, the type of education that can be achieved in this way is somewhat limiting.

Beat the Education System

Flaw is the most fundamental attribute of any manmade system. While some systems may work more effectively than others, they are all doomed to have inefficiencies, major or minor. The human education system, American or otherwise, is no exception. It is not organized by Divine Providence, and it cannot be expected to function without any imperfections. The key then, is to identify its weaknesses and to capitalize on them, just like a simple headshot in a video game.

Weakness number one: modern education is organized to give the masses too many choices. As ambitious individuals, we seek education to improve our understanding of life, its problems, and its solutions. However, we must resist the temptation to spread our commitments into too many fields. In the end, we will perform many missions, but we can never perform two missions in a truly simultaneous fashion. Our human brain is wired to focus on one thing at a time, so we must discipline ourselves to go after our one goal at a time.