Online Driver Education: Riding a Wave of the Future?

June heralds the end of the traditional school year and three months of summer break, usually filled with vacation, extracurricular activities and other rites of passage. Nothing says "coming of age" more fluently than taking driver's education during the summer months. It's an experience that has been popular with teenagers ever since the car was invented.

Traditional driver education has always been an offshoot of the academic world. It's the high school teachers with time on their hands who have traditionally performed the duties as coaches for the novice driver. In our business, we have taken driver education to the consumer level, providing convenient class room hours and accommodating driving times to fit the busy schedules of modern families.

Last week, a Michigan Senate bill was introduced that will attempt to change the face of traditional driver's training. This bill, introduced by state Senators Roger Kahn and Wayne Kuipers, seeks to amend the Michigan vehicle code to allow for parents to provide driver education to their children. Obviously geared toward home schooling parents, if this proposed legislation passes, licensed parents and guardians will be able to teach their children to drive without being licensed as a certified instructor. Parents will not be required to use a vehicle that is modified as a driver education vehicle.

(Currently, instructors can only be licensed after they take a college level driver education training course. The educators must follow a state prescribed curriculum, and have criminal background checks, clean driving records and positive medical reports.)

The wording of the bill is general, but the intent is clear: driver's training is slowly moving away from brick and mortar structures and into the realm of the Internet. There are already many states which allow online driver education. Today's young people are savvy when it comes to finding information online, and they are accustomed to and demand instant results.

Where does this leave the traditional driver training school?

As time goes on, I foresee online driver education as a trend that will be hard to stop. Already many customers call to inquire of the possibility. They have been able to get pertinent information online for years. Web sites like www.driversed.com and www.teenautoclub.com provide the text book portion for California residents in an easy and reliable format. Once completed and certified through a licensed school, the student driver can move on to six hours of practical experience with an instructor.

Like many hallowed traditions of the past, driver education needs to move out of the dark ages and into the 21^st Century. Obviously, the value of the behind-the-wheel experience with a licensed instructor is something that can't be matched with your computer. The changing face of driver education requires careful forethought from legislatures, parents, and teachers alike. Besides offering the convenience of online training, the biggest concern should be with providing a good foundation of education that concentrates on traffic safety. It's most important for our new drivers to learn safe skills, no matter where they get their information.