Why pursue online learning?

Why pursue online learning?
If you do a search of Google with the terms online learning and the environment you will find like I did that there are many entries concerning the online learning environment rather than the effect that online learning can have on the environment. That's odd isn't it? If you you like me see that one of the main benefits of adopting an fully or partially online learning program is the positive effect it can have for the environment. No more forcing reluctant trade students to observe 8 am starting times merely to suit the capacity restraints of a system restricted by the number of practical rooms available or the budget available for student places. There is no doubt in my mind that the current model of is deeply rooted in an industrial model of production and that is why it is fundamentally unsustainable. We no longer live in an industrial world. For a start it is simply not an inefficient use of human resources. Why make a young cookery apprentice who usually finishes work around 11 pm and probably gets to sleep around 12:30 am get up at six so they can be present for class though sleep deprived at a college at anything up to 100kms away. Tell me how it is good for them or for the productivity of the enterprise and I will listen but honestly I will be reluctant to be convinced. You are going to have to explain to me, clearly, how it is good for morale, or profitabilty or accident rates for that matter? This is even more relevant in the baking trades, many of these guys are almost completely nocturnal though this is changing, oddly enough thanks to a concentration of ownership of shops in the chains. Recently we have heard how Australian Industry and it's awards and enterprise agreements need to be need to be restructured in order to address the threat from Chinese manufacturing. I would have thought as a starting point,for it is surely not this simple, that we need to work smarter and not simply cheaper. There can be no Australian who sees lower wages as a personal solution for the dilemna of securing the Australian dream of home ownership in an age of record property prices while maintaining some sort of quality of life.So what about trade training? Has it always been this way? What are we worried about when we consider change? Originally an apprentice was taught from the master in the workplace and off the job training was not considered necessary at all. I remember Alexis Chauvin a cookery teacher (with the most marvellous skills) at East Sydney TAFE college recounting how as an apprentice he was made to sleep on the benches of the kitchen and when they rendered they the cooking fat to make soap you could not sleep at all because of the stench. Surely no sane person expects apprentices to endure that today? It was concern about ensuring the uniformity of training that created the present off the job training system across a range of countries.Attendance at training colleges was seen as the best way of ensuring this occurred. Up until now this was probably true, but we now face the prospect of equally effective, cheaper, more environmentaly friendly methods of doing the same thing being widely available. Not only being available but supported by fundamental changes in, entertainment preferences communication methodologies and just plain simple exposure to new technologies our students are currently experiencing. Sure we need to ensure we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater and remove the the face to face transferance of skills that has always occured in practical classrooms, but for a lot of the other stuff there might be a much better way.
In terms of the environment here are some of the ways online learning might help to ensure a sustainable future:
Cars- less of them on the road at a given time. To test this think of the volume of traffic generated around school starting and finishing times. Though less visible the same thing is happening with vocational training.
Roads as above
Carparks as above
Generating more outcomes from the same physical capacity, therefore less infrastructure cost, less maintenance, greater throughput from the same number of classrooms etc etc etc.
Higher student satisfaction therefore lower staff stress and greater staff satisfaction.
Greater emphasis on staff expertise rather than simple presentation of information leading to higher levels of satisfaction and more rewarding job roles.