Lee believes the ideal method is desktop video-conferencing, but that would require cable modems or other technology. The pictures tend to be choppy. The quality is not good. The best alternative is live two-way web audio technology, which allows a student to view material on a computer screen and communicate with a professor through live audio. Lee plans to use the technology to teach his international economics course this summer.
Technology is wonderful and revolutionizing many aspects of our society.
However, I do not think technology will replace the learning that takes place in classrooms at Shippensburg. He emphasized distance learning will not result in fewer faculty jobs, as some believe. If we want distance education to be like the teaching we do here, class size has to be small and the faculty has to have a lot of support. If distance education takes off, I think we'll need more faculty members, not less. With all his work, Lee doesn't have much time for hobbies.