With new technologies and expanded access to online classrooms, today’s students are taking advantage of distance learning opportunities.  Whether students are unable to attend class or looking to augment their curriculum beyond their school’s course offerings, distance learning provides learners with more access to education.

Technology trends in education continue to change at a rapid pace, making access to education easier for all learners.  Traditionally, students who were out of school for extended periods due to health issues had few options besides hiring a tutor or falling behind.  The distance learning umbrella includes not only real-time access to classrooms but also enables students to enroll in virtual classrooms.

Distance learning is changing the game for remote learners.

Marcus Rosenthal founder and CEO, Revolve Robotics says, “Kubi (which means neck in Japanese—so that the tablet becomes the head), is an economical way for kids to get to school.  Any time there is a home bound student, Kubi can become a remote teacher.”  Because Kubi is web based, it works on any tablet, making it very easy to connect to the classroom and control what the attendee sees on the screen.  The platform enables students to attend class in real-time even if they can’t physically get to school.

Kubi is very new, says Rosenthal.  “It was tested out in 2014 and rolled out in February of this year.  It’s currently being used in over 200 different education organizations with some of the largest K-12 deployments in Texas and Canada.” What’s impressive about the learning possibilities with Kubi is that students can go from class to class by clicking into different classrooms on the right side of the screen. The student attending class can send notes to the teacher in real time, and the teacher can monitor where the students are focusing their attention. 

The Kubi is different from a webcam as it is not a fixed view.  Controls allow the user to shift viewpoints around the classroom either by clicking on the control arrows or touching the screen.  In addition to making it possible for remote learners to attend live classrooms, Kubi also provides the opportunity to bring in virtual guest speakers.  Rosenthal says, “I can get an astronaut to come to my class or other guests who might not otherwise be affordable for a school.”

The ability to shift viewpoints is a great perk, but schools need to determine whether the cost of the platform makes this function a necessity.  Since Google Hangouts and Skype are low cost (or even free), every student and school can gain access to them.

Connectivity caused some delays in my tutorial, which is one of the downsides of distance learning. Rosenthal says, “You can do a speed test, but if you were a student in class right now, you would have intermittent service.” In addition to connectivity issues, there are also cost considerations for K-12 schools.

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