I am excited (although exhausted) to be starting my personal journey learning about distance education (DE). In an early module of OMDE 603, we read about the historical aspects of DE starting with correspondence courses. One of the first successful examples of a correspondence course (and hence DE) was the deployment of a course designed by Sir Isaac Pitman in the 1840’s on his phonetic shorthand method. This was based on his 1837 publication titled “Stenographic Sound-Hand.” Sir Isaac Pitman is depicted here.
As a very bored adolescent one summer long ago, my mother decided I should do something useful with my time, so she signed me up at “Fleet Temple Business School” to learn how to type and take shorthand. My mother’s thinking of course, was that young ladies grew up to be a secretary, nurse or teacher. She couldn’t stand the sight of blood, and she didn’t have a lot of use for teachers, so she assumed I’d be a secretary. I know that sounds like I’m 300 years old, but this was actually in the 1970’s! I don’t think she saw college professor in my future! However, I did become one of the fastest and most accurate typists I’ve met to date! And I did learn Forkner shorthand, which morphed into my own weird combination of Forkner and medical abbreviations. When I took notes in pharmacy school, they were basically a transcript of the lecture; I was a popular girl for sure!
But, I digress! I have spent considerable time pondering HOW Sir Pitman operationalized a correspondence course teaching shorthand without the technology we have today. I remember the relentless exercises of either listening to a recording or the teacher reading a passage and us transcribing the oral word into shorthand. How did Pitman pull this off? Apparently thanks to the introduction of the postal service in England in 1840 he was able to mail postcards with the text transcribed into shorthand to his students. Learners were expected to transcribe the shorthand back into English and mail it back for correction. This system evolved into the Phonographic Correspondence Society several years later, launching a nation of shorthand-takers throughout England!
As I was noodling around on the internet looking for information on Sir Pitman’s correspondence course, I came across an advertisement for a “Pitman Shorthand via Correspondence” course (http://www.eliteeas.com.au/shorthand?web_pdf). It’s 24 weeks in duration and costs $400 (Australian) plus postage and packaging. The course is offered by a Ms. Tanya Battel who has updated the Pitman Shorthand course into a “personalized and hands-on” correspondence course. As far as I can tell, this correspondence course is still open for business today! Ms. Battel sends the enrollee two volumes of shorthand theory which is divided into 28 individual shorthand theory lessons. She asks learners to commit two hours a week to study, and 90 minutes of practice a week. Students complete their homework and send it electronically back to Ms. Battel for grading. The assistance of friends and family are enlisted to read passages of information to the student for transcription into Pitman shorthand.
So, Sir Pitman’s work in correspondence education lives on today! The only real difference I can see is student’s sending their homework to the teacher electronically as opposed to by snail mail. When you consider $400 Australian is only $305.47 US dollars, and you might end up being able to record 250 words per minute like Ms. Battel, that’s an awesome deal!
Fɔr jɔr homwərk pliz trænskrajb ðɪs ɛntajər blɒg fənɛtɪkli. (Translation: for your homework please transcribe this entire blog phonetically). Thanks for reading my blog post!