ARE THERE STILL DOUBTS ABOUT DISTANCE EDUCATION?

At birth, distance education at the university levels generated serious doubts about the attainment of knowledge and skills. The scientific literature generated around this type of education shows no significant differences between the results obtained by students in academic face-to-face environments and distance learners. In any case, the results are inclined in favor of the distance education. There is evidence, moreover, that learning is not the result of technology but of the design and the teaching method employed. Distance education is shown to be highly successful in providing significant levels of autonomy in people. An autonomy that is not to be confused with loneliness or individualism. This, in effect, has been emerging in various research as one of the handicaps of distance education. In this respect, collaborative technologies have efficiently responded to the challenges related to the area of socialization. The teacher- student, student-student and student-content interactions are enhanced, especially with the advent of Web 2.0 that comes with a great potential to improve education in general and the "at a distance" in particular.