In the last decade, China and India have seen large increases in their literacy and graduation rates and an increasing emphasis on distance education and training initiatives. They are examples of nations in which economic and technological initiatives have been aligned in order to produce outcomes that ensure the population will thrive in the 21 st century. However, no country can simply equip its distance education system with updated technologies and expect to be fully prepared for 21 st century economic challenges. This report outlines the consonances and dissonances of distance education (DE) in China and India and the policy alignments required for its stable development.
The global rise of Internet-based education is discussed in relation to models drawn from social studies and epidemiology. Experiential and data density models are highlighted, also the capacity for technological change, and phenomena observed in the spread of disease. The lesson of these illustrations is that even apparently permanent phenomena can be transient and that current online practices may rapidly be superseded by other technologies regardless of their apparent success. It is hoped that these illustrations will help to prepare distance educators for the technological, social, and economic changes that could naturally affect their future work, particularly at times of economic crisis.
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