The pendulum of distance education on the Internet

I've been online for about 10 years now and remember what the Internet was like during its adolescence.  Over the past ten years, I've seen great advances in using the internet as an educational tool.  My first online grad school class, back in 1999, was poorly organized so more time was spent teaching technology skills than class content.  In 2002, I took another online course where technological skills were assumed and the entire course focused on class content.  That's quite an advance in just three years.  The past 10 years have also seen the creation of colleges that are totally online (i.e. Univ. of Phoenix) and a move to more online classes being offered by universities.   

I believe that online education is a wonderful tool.  For people like me, living more than an hour's drive from the nearest university, it may be the only to pursue a degree.  When I was an undergrad (1984-88), doing research meant physically going to the library and searching the card catalog and other resources.  Now it is as simple as logging in and using search engines.  That is certainly positive change.   

Here's my prediction for the future of online learning:  schools will slowly begin to use more and more online classes, cheaper alternatives to the Univ. of Phoenix will appear, some colleges or universities will insist on going mostly online, maybe even going so far as making requirements such as "25% of all classes must be taken online."  This will be the pendulum swinging to the extreme.  Then, hopefully it will swing back to center.

Students love choices.  Students must be given a choice between taking face-to-face classes and taking classes online.  Each student has his/her own preferences.  I dread looking at a syllabus and seeing some sort of group work.  I can't stand working with others when it affects my grade.  I want to be completely responsible for my grade.  Some students surely feel the same way about online work.

I envision the Internet being a savior to many teenage kids that hate school for a number of reasons - handicaps, peer pressure, learning disabilities, and bullying and other social issues.  This may seem like hyperbole, but the Internet may save lives.  Given the choice of committing suicide because he hates school, or using an online alternative to school, a student (hopefully) would choose the latter.

Eventually, after the pendulum has swung to its extreme, it will come back and find a healthy balance between online classes for those who want them and face to face classes for those who prefer that way of learning.  When that happens, I hope that the analogy becomes not one using a pendulum, but more like a lead plumb weight, something that rests in the center without swinging to extremes.  I look forward to watching this happen.