Homeschooling can be challenging. Particularly as children age, parents can find themselves out of their depth trying to teach more advanced coursework. Many families also want their children to be part of a community while still maintaining primary control of their child's education. For them, traditional schools (whether public or private,…

A truism of school reform has long been the promise that technology, properly applied, will fuel dramatic improvement in teaching and learning. When tech-enabled schools or online learning programs haven't delivered the hoped-for results, some have dismissed these shortcomings as implementation problems--or evidence that we haven't yet deployed…

"We used to send out books that looked like this," says Barbara Dreyer, as she holds the 500-page volume from one of the first-ever courses offered online by Connections Academy. "You could look at this information online, but, frankly, a lot of people were doing this," she adds, thumbing through the book's pages. Dreyer, has…

This article presents an interview with Joe Freidhoff, the director of online learning research and innovation at the "Michigan Virtual University"[R] ("MVU"[R]), a nonprofit corporation in Michigan. He publishes and presents frequently in the area of K-12 online and blended learning research. Dr. Freidhoff completed his…

Eddie Reisch is currently working as a policy advisor for Te Reo Maori Operational Policy within the Student Achievement group with the Ministry of Education in New Zealand, where he has implemented and led a range of e-learning initiatives and developments, particularly the Virtual Learning Network (VLN). He is regarded as one of the leading…

The enthusiasm for digital learning is contagious. More than 2 million K-12 students are enrolled in online courses today, and research firm Ambient Insight projects that figure will hit 10 million by 2014. Will today's wave of technology inexorably change the face of schooling, or must school administrators first alter policy? This article…

In both schools and homes, information and communication technologies (ICT) are widely seen as enhancing learning, this hope fuelling their rapid diffusion and adoption throughout developed societies. But they are not yet so embedded in the social practices of everyday life as to be taken for granted, with schools proving slower to change their…