Online learning needs government attention, panelists say

The Internet is making distance learning viable in even the remotest regions of the United States, but if federal and state governments do not harmonize their efforts to promote online education as credible, it is less likely to evolve into an effective learning environment, panelists said Tuesday at a U.S. Distance Learning Association conference in Washington.

"For the first time, even states like mine in the middle of nowhere can get information" via the Internet, South Dakota Republican Gov. William Janklow said in a keynote speech addressing government regulation of e-learning.

Under Janklow's administration, South Dakota has financed the wiring of every school in the state, he said. "The net result is we are all on a level playing field. Government's job always is to guarantee a fair fight."

E-learning is not a luxury but a method of survival for rural states that have difficulty recruiting skilled and technically trained teachers for small-town schools, according to Janklow. "Just because someone's a great classroom teacher, doesn't mean they are a great e-learning teacher," he said. "This is the first revolution of the history of the world that's being driven by the grade-schoolers and middle-schoolers."

But as e-learning becomes more prolific, Janklow said, some regulation may be necessary but there is debate as to where this responsibility should lie. Paul Bardack, an associate with Booz Allen & Hamilton's information technology division, said it is often difficult to get federal lawmakers in tune with progressive educators. He added that most of the general public believes distance learning is a fad.

"Technological ambivalence means policy ambivalence," Bardack said. He noted that the Bush administration is focusing on education issues through initiatives such as setting national standards, but that the White House is likely to further decentralize education by leaving many education-related decisions to the states.

Michael Goldstein of Dow, Lohnes & Albertson and a member of several national education boards, said "education is a hyper-regulated industry" and that an "interesting train wreck" occurs when federal governments attempt to mandate education standards to states.

"The problem is, we are a nation of states, and we need to figure out how to rationalize an increasingly global economy with antiquated systems," Goldstein said. Citing the results of the Web-based Education Commission, he said, "It is as if we tried to manage the interstate highway system with the rules of the horse-and-buggy system."