Those not familiar with the internet and the possibilities of its use for online education are often mired in out-moded understandings of technology.
The credibility of online learning depends not only upon the sound application of online pedagogical principles, but also on a clear understanding of what is and is not distance learning. Faculty, student, and institutional acceptance of distance learning depends upon this. One of the problems that stand in the way of this understanding is a knowledge of what exactly constitutes online learning.
Using the internet as a means of publishing and distributing information has been around for a while now. Using the internet to actually teach and learn is relatively new. As with any new technology, there is the problem of misconception and of misapplication (McLuhan 1964, p. 158). Each new technology goes through its “horseless carriage” stage where descriptions and conceptions of what the new technology actually is and what its consequences and ultimate purposes are cannot be adequately visualized by those nursed on the old technologies. A good example of this problem is found in the book “On The Internet” by Dreyfus (2002). I choose to analyze this problem through a close examination of this book because I believe it is representative of the kinds of attitudes that lead to and contribute to a misunderstanding what distance learning is all about.
Dreyfus claims that real learning cannot take place unless the student is in the physical proximity to the master. He claims that when we are on the internet we lose an important connection to one another. The level of communication necessary for learning is impossible without this "embodiment." Dreyfus, says that "the body's ability to zero in on what is significant, and then preserve that understanding in our background awareness, enables us to perceive more and more refined situations and respond more and more skillfully; its sensitivity to mood opens up our shared social situation and makes people and things matter to us; and its tendency to respond positively to direct engagement with other bodies underlies our sense of trust and so sustains our interpersonal world. All this our body does so effortlessly, pervasively, and successfully that it's hardly noticed. That is why it is so easy to think that in cyberspace we could get along without it, and why it would, in fact, be impossible to do so." (Dreyfus 2001, p.72)