From article:
Those hoping to harness the power of the web might take cues from today’s most popular communications technology: the television.
Technology overall can play an important role in education — for instance, in helping to substitute ill-trained, poorly-motivated teachers stuck with outdated curricula in crowded classrooms. A survey in seven southern African countries found many primary school mathematics teachers who scored lower than their students on the same tests. In unannounced visits to schools in southern India, there was only a 28 percent chance that a teacher would be present and engaged. The result is hundreds of millions of children are stuck in classes where they are learning little to nothing.
Under some circumstances, television can be at least as effective as traditional instruction. Mexico’s Telesecundaria programming broadcasts six hours of lessons a day to children in remote areas of the country where there is no secondary school.
For the most part, though, television has remained an adjunct in the classroom, rather than a replacement for teachers. But as a more holistic tool for learning outside the classroom, it has had a massive impact — particularly when it serves its primary function to entertain and not educate.
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