> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://broadbandbreakfast.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Distance Learning Leaders Say Broadband Is No Longer the Hard Part - URL: https://broadbandbreakfast.com/distance-learning-leaders-say-broadband-is-no-longer-the-hard-part/ - Published: 2026-08-26T19:33:15.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-26T19:35:55.000Z - Description: The field's toughest challenges have moved past connectivity to teacher preparation, human presence and the arrival of AI in the classroom. - Author: Broadband Breakfast - Tags: Education, #with-siderail, BBLO, Pat Cassella, Alexandra Salas, USDLA, Robbie Melton, Shana Garrett, online learning, #no-flux WASHINGTON, Aug. 26, 2026 – Six years after the pandemic pushed American classrooms online, the people who run the country's oldest distance learning association say the stubborn problems are no longer about getting a signal to the building. They are about what happens once the signal arrives. That was a key takeaway of a[ Broadband Breakfast Live Online](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/broadband-breakfast-on-august-26-2026-a-distance-learning-update/) panel Wednesday: Connectivity is easy, but instruction is difficult. The founding purpose of the United States Distance Learning Association, which turns 40 next year, was originally to ensure that distance learning networks were built to enable education remotely, said **Pat Cassella**, its executive director. "In those days, broadband wasn't so broad," he said. "If you were lucky, you had, maybe a T1 connection," referring to a dedicated, high-speed digital business communication line. The association's focus has since shifted to whether educators know how to teach at a distance at all. [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/29/97/29976d9d-89ea-4c77-8c0b-0e8a0eafed35/content/images/2026/08/250150_course_graphic_YT_wordmark_title-1.png)](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/course/#bbb-offer) [***Sign Up for FREE for Section A**](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/course/#bbb-offer) [Sign Up for FREE for Section A ](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/course/#bbb-offer) Connection alone was never the finish line, said **Dr. Alexandra Salas**, president of the Delmarva Digital Learning Association, a USDLA state chapter, and chair of the association's public policy committee. "Connection doesn't mean that the level of competency or the utility is where it needs to be," she said, describing her chapter's work on digital literacy and digital wellness as an effort to close the gap between having access and using it well. ### *From access to presence* The word "distance" in learning may itself be the wrong frame, said **Dr. Robbie Melton**, provost and vice president of economic affairs at Tennessee State University. "When I hear ‘distance,’ I hear communicating," she said. "With distance and digital education, it's basically communicating, sharing, and receiving." And the obligation is not technical, it is human: "You still must be accountable for having that human personalized touch when you teach distance, and there is a difference." Salas went further, dropping the term altogether in her chapter's name. "I've transitioned over from distance to digital," she said, calling digital learning "a universal unifier for access and communication and accessibility." She pointed to classroom sessions she leads for teachers in the DMV area, and in crossing borders with overseas education. Asked about what evidence suggested about outcomes for digital learning, Cassella conceded that studies showing distance learning on par with in-person education are inconclusive. "There's been a lot of evidence that remote or online learning yields a lower academic performance, and there's a stigma," he said. "If you don't have somebody who's good at their trade, no matter what it is, the outcome for the person who's experiencing the service that's being delivered, it's not going to be very good." Research quality depends heavily on how the question is asked, added Melton, drawing a line between asynchronous coursework and live instruction. Salas said [the strongest predictor](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/students-should-be-able-to-choose-online-learning-when-in-person-classes-resume-principal/?) of results comes from academic support for digital learning. For "those programs that have strong support services, the students do really well," she said, citing examples of nursing and engineering programs. ### *‘A lightning bolt’* The panel discussed the role of artificial intelligence in education in the closing stretch. "Give us AI tools that are [effective in teaching and learning](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/education-department-finalizes-ai-education-priorities/?)," Melton said. "AI tools that are safe, \[that\] protect our privacy, but can help us to teach and learn." Students are not waiting for institutional permission, Salas warned. "Students are using whatever they can get their hands on," she said, which is [pushing faculty to rethink assignments](https://broadbandbreakfast.com/schools-are-starting-to-teach-ai-literacy-for-many-that-means-helping-kids-see-chatbots-flaws/?) so students are not "just regurgitating." Her own view was pragmatic: "It behooves us to learn to live with AI and navigate with AI as an assistant." **Dr. Shana Garrett**, dean at Walden University and former chair of the USDLA board, joined the panel but experience audio difficulties in connecting. She made her case through the distance learning tool of typing into CHAT. "AI is a tool we should use," she said. "We should learn how to use it ethically, wisely, and intentionally." Cassella closed with a warning about AI. "It's like a lightning bolt," he said of AI. "It can be used to power a city for a month, or burn it to the ground in a second."