Good news for rural communities - the United States Department of Agriculture has just announced that $128 million dollars will be available to improve medical care and education in rural areas:

"Telemedicine and distance learning are the foundation on which the quality of education and health care in rural America can and will improve," Dorr said via a video teleconference with health care providers in five states over a USDA-financed telemedicine network. "With these systems in place, rural residents will be able to take advantage of the wide variety of health care services and education programs available now and into the future."

Medical care professionals will be able to improve their skills via distance learning programs. Also, telemedicine will help people from rural communities get help from medical specialists that would otherwise be too far away to help - through video conferencing and other means, patients can be examined remotely.

Following the recent announcement about Canada's distance learning program for future immigrants, it seems that governments are finally starting to embrace online education as the powerful tool it can be.