According to Ruben Lopez, Florida ’s former chief technology officer, e-learning will become the cornerstone of how K-12 curriculum will be delivered in the future (Miller 2003). By 2006, it is estimated that a majority of high school students will have taken an online course before graduating (Fulton 2002). Whether these predictions become reality remains to be seen, but there is evidence to support the growing presence of K-12 online learning. The technology infrastructure appears in place with 99% of U.S. public schools having Internet access in the fall of 2002 (Kleiner and Lewis 2003). The number of high school students taking online courses is also on the rise.

For example, The Center for Education Reform (www.edreform.com) in Washington , D.C. , estimated that 21,000 students were logging into their virtual classrooms from home in 2002, while state education officials said that about 30,000 students were attending 11 virtual charter high schools during 2003 in Ohio alone (Anglen 2003). Then in September 2003, a new first-of-its-kind group, the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL, online at www.nacol.org), was launched to focus solely on advancing K-12 virtual education by providing the research support for what has and has not worked so far in K-12 distance learning (Lott 2003).

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By Dr. Patricia Deubel

Articles source: T. H. E. Journal