> essence of schooling, which for kids, especially, is largely a socializing and cultivating process that must happen, at least partly, in the context of caring and inspiring adults and pro-social peers, not to mention the place where students learn how to team and lead most conveniently, before they'll do that remotely in the future.
Agree fully. The psychosocial development of kids, as well as their physical/fitness, are as equally critical (some would say more so) than the intellectual -- all areas where the twig must be bent in order for the tree to grow straight (or at least straight enough to be contributive and well-adjusted in maturity).
It is hard to envision this balanced process occurring in a remote isolation with only connection to the Internet, which may well nourish the intellect and mental maturation if properly guided and advised, but will leave huge gaps in other areas. Thus I see distance learning being useful for students already in supportive social situations where the primary deficit is intellectual resources (e.g. bright rural kid who wants to learn AP-level math or science, or access historical discussions about the industrial revolution, or learn some beginning Chinese, which is simply not available in the small town community high school he attends).
The reverse is true, of course, where a kid may have access to all the intellectual resources (think, New York City or Los Angeles), but be in a large highly competitive impersonal urban school where she doesn't fit in well and psychosocial development suffers or is bent in the wrong direction.
The point here is that school must offer a balanced development, perhaps tilted in the direction of special talents that child brings so that they can be exceptional in at least one area to develop confidence and self-esteem in their mastery of that topic. Every kid should be recognized as the "leader" or "best" of his class or school in something -- athletics, math, art, penmanship, writing, work program, chapel service, technology, languages, compassion, milking cows (my Putney is showing through), or leading others -- embracing one or more of Gardner's multiple intelligences.
In a small school it is easier to be "best" in your (small) class at something, and a classmate to be "best" at something else, and a third at still something else, where each can stretch and show their stuff, developing self-confidence (that they know that area better than the others) but also develop humility (I can be just average or even underperforming in something without feeling I am an inadequate person).
If the focus of all this is student-centric, identifying and developing his/her special talents, and encouraging respectful humility in areas of lesser ability where other kids excel, then we will raise a well-rounded group of kids. Not each kid is round (most will be individually and uniquely bumpy and irregular), but the combined collectivity will be well rounded, the genesis of a well rounded community of adults later in life.
But I digress -- distance/remote learning will have an increasingly important place going forward, even remote socialization (e.g. Facebook), but there will always need to be the human contact with social peers (sprinkled with some diversity and spice that kids can increasingly expect later in life) and supportive caring informed guiding adults (in the broadest sense, "teachers"). As the intellectual content increasingly is available from the Web, I believe that schools have to focus more on the psychosocial and physical portions. The blending can be simultaneous (the experience of boarding school where everything is around you 24X7) or sequential (a semester abroad or weekend specialized field trips with two other students and a faculty member).
One can think of online resources as another form of "directed reading" selected and encouraged by your Oxford tutor who is well prepared to discuss what you learned that week over the Internet, and with the insight and experience to guide you to another place on the Web. At this point our most experienced teachers are not digital natives, so are not particularly skilled at such supportive expert guidance. But over the next generation we will develop younger teachers who can do this sort of "tutoring" quite effectively -- and schools can concentrate less on providing all intellectual content (hard to compete with the Net!) and more on the psychosocial, emotional, and corporal development of the child.
=== Bill (after his second cup of Starbucks)
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