'Virtual classroom benefits'

This is the title of a box in my new PCPlus (May 2008). This is remarkable because it is rather passée - shouldnt the benefits be so apparent by now that we hardly need discuss them? David Malan is behind one Harvard School's podcast project but seems to have his feet on the ground. 'Malan said distance learning is not a major focus for Harvard, although they do offer extension classes... Yet there is nothing quite like actual classroom learning - with a lecture and classmates interacting and discussing the topic' (p82)