Fads, Distance Education,and the Importance of Theory Cleborne D. Maddux SUMMARY. Fads are common in every area of education. The problem with fads is that even promising developments are quickly abandoned to make room for the next innovation. Educational innovations become fads partly because they are without a firm foundation in theories of learning, or because that foundation is not fully identified and communicated. There have been many examples of fads in information technology in education. The question of whether or not distance education will turn out to be a fad is addressed, and some tentative steps are discussed that might help avoid its achieving fad status. [

A lesson plan using the video Game Tropic 4 in Social Studies/Humanities classes.