Distance Education

This semester I've been teaching a pilot distance ed program with BYU-Hawaii. I've had some mixed feelings over it, but I'm glad that I had the experience to test it out. I'm excited yet worried that this is going to take off for international students. It's a great program, and besides all the tech difficulties (which is A LOT), I'm really proud of my students who have been active participants this entire semester. But, at the same time, I'm sad that there were only 7 active students out of a class of 18. Shoot, that's not even half. The new president of BYUH is focusing a lot on Asia - but what about Polynesia? I had a student who had to take a boat to another island just to get internet access that he had to pay for. And he could only make it out there once a week, and he was lucky if the connection was good. Doesn't he deserve the same attention and opportunity?

Anyway, bottom line is yes, a person can learn thru distance ed (shoot, I'm doing my master's at a distance), but people need people. That's the best way to learn. I've found that out the hard way and I'll be so sad if others will too.