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Isaac Pitman creates the 1st Correspondence Course
In the 1840's, Isaac Pitman, the inventor of shorthand writing, was the first to teach this technique via correspondence courses. In many ways, this is the beginning of Distance Education. Students received lessons via mail and then mailed their assignments and work to Pitman in response. The idea caught on and spread to other institutions of learning. -
William Rainey Harper creates the first college correspondence course
In 1880, the future President of the University of Chicago and inventor of the concept of the modern community college, William Rainey Harper, offers the first college-credit correspondence course. This legitimizes the concept of Distance Education as a vyable part of an accredited educational programme of study and it spreads from there. -
Radio used for education
In the 1910's and 20's, some radio stations began broadcasting educational programming to the masses for free. This not only democratized education to anyone who had a radio and was within listening range, but also revealed the potential for the real-time Distance Education in the future. The lack of success of this short lived experiement certainly doesn't diminish its historical importance as demonstrating the potential of future airwave-distribution methods of Distance Education. -
Educational Television
In the 1940's and 50's, television began to broadcast educational programs. This further spread the potential of Distance Education as it added the visual dimension to this medium and spread to an entire generation of Baby Boomers in their most formative educational years. The success of this gave rise to NETV (National Education Television Network), the Flying Classroom and Sesame Street in the1960's. -
Sesame Street
When Public Television first aired Sesame Street in 1969, it began a revolution in children's educational programming. Using a fun and relatable entertainment forum, children learned to count, the alphabet and basic words at an younger age than the median age had previously been in the US. Many preschool and kindergarten had to adjust their curriculi to accomodate for the preparations that this program had already provided their incoming new students. -
cassette tapes, VHS, CD & DVDs in education
In the 1970's and 80's, growing numbers of schools incorporated Distance Learning using the media or cassette tapes, VHS tapes, CD's and DVD's. Students would watch or listen to and engage with these materials and often could earn school credit in courses specifically built around these sources. -
Online Education
Starting with two schools in New York and New Jersey, Distance Learning education opportunities via the internet began in the early 1990's. The growth and methods of online education expanded dramatically over the decade and into the 2000's. Currently, online education is one of the primary forms of Distance Education offered at various levels of education, all of which started with a simple dial-up connection to a few students in the Northeastern US.
