In 1885, William Rainey Harper, president of the University of Chicago said, “The day is coming when the work done by correspondence will be greater in amount than that done in the classrooms of our academies and colleges.” I would say that he showed considerable insight to see so far in advance the direction that learning was to proceed.

Today we look at what some people see as brain rotting media TV/VIDEO/DVD

Such visual media is the ‘easy option’ for teaching children and can loosely be called e-learning. My children would sit glued for hours at the latest ‘Richard Scarry’ video and could recite them back almost word perfect.
Interactive DVDs are the more up to date variant of Video/TV. These can be used on a computer or through a TV and allow the user to progress through personal learning. Subjects covered range from languages to, for example, the Open University Course in Quantum Physics recently completed by one of my own prisoner-students. Interactive DVD could be of more practical use in prisons where use of computers or the internet is restricted

At a recent e-learning conference I was introduced to a company that provides education for prisoners via TV, aimed specifically at those prisoners who felt unwilling to be seen attending formal classes.
KickStartTV is a project commissioned by the-learning & Skills Council and allows prisoners to learn a multitude of subjects via Sky, Telewest and Freeview, as they sit in the privacy of their own cells.
This method of information delivery has similar pros and cons to the use of gaming. I am sure you have been told once or twice in your early years that if you continue watching TV you will get square eyes, with the implication of social isolation and to a moderate extent, addiction. Obviously TV does have its place in education, as a means of delivering training and information to a large, fragmented audience. Video has now been almost replaced with the DVD which has the added benefit of being interactive.
This form of e-media can be useful for prisoners who for one reason or another cannot work with others in a classroom environment, There are a some really good educational DVDs for Offender management especially in regards to drink and drug awareness. The major problem with these is judgement of their value. If shown in a group situation and then supported by group discussion, they can be very useful. Given to a single individual to watch on his or her own can reduce the uptake of knowledge, unless another method of reinforcement is used to validate the information.