The bicentenary in 2011 of the Luddite Revolt prompts us to ask "what would Ned Ludd think of today's automated styles of distance education?" He would no doubt echo the common criticism that educational technologies create an impersonal style of teaching and learning, and devalue the teacher. He would probably agree that online methods have major potential for millions of distance-based students who cannot attend classroom-based education and training; but he would emphasise the need for quality assurance and cost-effectiveness studies in distance education implementation. He might also ask why anyone would encourage the development of e-learning in countries where the Internet is largely inaccessible. This article uses the Luddites' views of workplace automation to explore how global distance education practices might be improved. It suggests that the intentions of the original Luddites were laudable and worthy of application in distance education today.