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Discusses the use of virtual worlds for business collaboration

Very few virtual schools have worked with students this young, so there are interesting questions about jumping from no virtual schooling all the way to this model.

There is a really fascinating and controversial policy story behind this. Through "legislative sausage-making" the states first virtual school is being run by a single district out in Western Mass., mostly as a result of the entrepreneurial spirit of the superintendent. There are big questions about what will happen as students across the state sign up for the virtual school and their districts are required to pay tuition to Greenfield. And Greenfield isn't really providing a school, they are just enrolling students to be taught by a for-profit company, K-12. There are quite a few very interesting policy issues that would be worth digging into as the state launches this new venture in an unusual way.

When I first read the article, I immediately thought "an idealist gone rogue." I wondered if there was even any research/method behind this decision, and you mentioned there is a fee. Did I understand correctly that the school district will have to pay this fee for the student like some sort of voucher? If I get a chance I'm going to look for more articles out there on this project. Thanks for mentioning it, Justin. Interesting, indeed.

"Distance learning courses have played an important role in raising awareness for one community-based charity, according to those involved. Online learning provider Virtual College worked with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community in Bradford to raise important issues regarding prejudice and discrimination in the workplace."

"Anything that brings language alive, whether that's in the real world or the virtual world, is a good thing."

Debate continues on virtual learning, on quality and assessment. Educators try to find how to exploit technology in a way that advances access to AP courses, specialized courses, customized individual learning, and full online school.

This article describes a virtual environment, which has hypergridding as a feature. Students can teleport from one community to the next. This was the first platform to do that.

I wonder how popular environments like this are right now, and how they are being implemented into classrooms. This is fairly recent.

Although often seen as an inconsequential feature of digital technologies, one's self-representation, or avatar, in a virtual environment can affect the user's thoughts, according to research by a University of Texas at Austin communication professor.

Is the online experience important enough to warrant this?

This strikes me as a case where technology is being implemented without enough thought as to how the technology actually furthers the learning goals. "Having an online learning experience" doesn't seem to me like a good enough reason to require students to take a course online, especially for students who do not have easy access to the internet. While I think it's important for students to get experience with an online learning platform, I hope that they are learning more than just how to use the technology -- what is more important is that they learn how to be part of a collaborative Community of Inquiry (I am borrowing the phrase Community of Inquiry from Garrison's "E-learning in the 21st Century"). This requires them to think and write critically and collaborate effectively with their peers.

Been reading about constructivist MOOCs lately (like the T561 virtual community), and ran across this essay from October on the nature of the social contract in a network-connected, physically-disconnected community.

Some very useful lessons to learn fro Mooresville. Looks like the broader ecosystem (such as cheper access to broadband internet) has been thought through rather than just dropping a laptop into the classroom.

Interesting comment from one of the parents, attesting to how technology can be out to good use in education - "My son, just yesterday, completed a mutlimedia project about the Sahara desert working together with another student. They created a video imagining them driving a vehicle through the desert while reciting facts about the desert and incorporating pictures and graphics about what they were describing. It was as if they were taking me on a virtual tour of the desert. This is the way we communicate now. What we learn is only as important as how we are able to communicate it to make things happen."