b.cognosco

More and more, I think the role of public schooling in the US is to force-feed some rudimentary level of essential knowledge -- how to read road signs and cigarette labels, understand a credit card statement, fill out a minimum-wage job application -- and a dose of current political doctrine into people regardless of their motivation. It's a sort of self-preservation thing for society.

To be anything more than that requires a lot of effort and motivation on the part of the student. This really is the challenge with all learning, and not many students have this kind of motivation:

[...] Only the story doesn't end there. Far from it. My daughter is nothing if not resourceful. She took to the net and soon found tutors who specialise in preparing UK kids for US schooling and vice versa.

Soon she was in a position to sign up for tutors twice a week and then do the rest of her schooling via distance learning, over the net. [...]

Few students show this kind of determination. Fewer still are the parents who know how to support and manage it. But it is something we must understand, and must learn to engender it in our students if we are to ever see the true benefits of extended learning tools.

Will elearning's day ever come?. E-learning - will its day ever come? Quote: "E-learning can work but it is not about the technology, which is now relatively cheap and available... What is important is providers understanding their customer base, making tools simple to use and having self-motivated users.[elearnspace blog]