E-learning 'is transforming education'

E-learning 'is transforming education':
Online learning will have a transformative effect on the education sector.
This is according to retired superintendent Geoff Johnson, who wrote in a column for Canadian publication the Victoria Times Colonist how he has realised the world of academia has changed quickly in recent years.
E-learning has challenged the traditional assumptions of when, where and how students learn, with teachers able to guide youngsters through the internet and point them towards archived educational material, references and relevant YouTube footage.
Although the classic classroom setting of the educator at the front of the room and desks facing a blackboard in a row is not yet obsolete, it is becoming so, he remarked.
Furthermore, virtual learning environments have opened up access to education to a wider range of people, rather than just children in school, the specialist added.
He compared education to music, arguing as internet access to songs and albums has altered the purchasing habits of people and revolutionised the relevant sectors, "online learning will inevitably affect the traditional delivery of public education".
The change will alter everything about academia, including building designs, classroom practices and the technology utilised within schools, the expert suggested.
Furthermore, e-learning should also cause "the emergence of truly individualised learning programs", he continued.
Mr Johnson explained he has begun to become more confident with mathematics due to online education, after taking a lesson on equations from an e-learning academy.
He questioned why the energy teachers' unions and the government put into debating the "politics of public education" is not instead focused on discovering "ways to use, correlate or modify these online learning gateways".
This corresponds with statements made by PhD student at Canada's University of Prince Edward Island Bonnie Stewart, who blogs at CribChronicles.com.
She forecast that e-learning and similar innovations will augment classroom education in the future, instead of simply supplanting them.