Remote learning isn’t new: Radio instruction in the 1937 polio epidemic
Remote instruction was viewed as an important early application of telecommunications technology. For example, the first FM radio station in this state (KANW, which perhaps due to its experimental nature at the time apparently did not claim a vanity call sign with meaning as most early stations did) was operated by the city school district with the purpose of broadcasting centrally produced lessons to classrooms. Broadcast to the public was only an incidental goal at the time as FM receivers were not yet common. Similarly, in many cities there is a public access television station which was, at least historically, operated by the K-12 district for similar purposes (KNME here, originally for New Mexico Education, has a similar history). In some larger areas there is also a television station operated by the community college or university extension, originally for the purpose of delivering continuing education courses.<p>Today the majority of these stations have quietly transformed into public stations (many having become NPR or PBS affiliates) and that historical purpose is largely lost. All evidence indicates that this concept of remote instruction was never particularly successful, although some school districts retained a city-wide closed circuit television system for quite some time with the primary use of announcements and occasionally low-interest courses such as less common foreign languages.<p>Remote insturction is certainly not new, and while the technology has indeed advanced I'm not convinced that it's really advanced since the 1960s to a degree that really revolutionizes the field. The technology in use today is still fundamentally video and audio delivery. Of course it's usually bidirectional today, but anyone who's tried to teach online has probably discovered that bidirectional video doesn't help nearly as much as you would hope.