Students with speech defects are not disadvantaged. The types of interaction are also simply different, a written comment in a conference can be read and re-read, a comment made verbally in a traditional classroom has to be remembered or noted if it is to be recalled. This may have other repercussions for example the kind of fierce debate which can go on in a classroom, the kind which is not personal once the right rapport has been established, may be difficult to reproduce on-line. 5 It has also made DE a possible method for delivering a fuller range of adult education programs, and doing so across an even wider terrain than previously. Given the state of current research into computer-networked delivery the questions still to be resolved are those outlined in the introduction.
Dialogue is different when it is developed electronically, as is the group's social learning.
The virtual classroom is a substantial advance on, indeed qualitatively different from, the isolated individualized learning of traditional distance education. Further, when it is combined with existing community it can support social objectives and do so across a wider terrain than is possible via traditional adult education means. But there is also a danger that the virtual classroom and the Internet will be fetishized. It can be used to support narrow aims and may not be critically examined by its advocates. However, this is not an argument for ignoring new technology but rather an argument for making it communally and universally accessible.