eSchool Stats in the US

Last week’s episode of “SuperNanny” included a scene with two girls engaged in online learning. However, it was a very different view than what I have come to know about the online systems here in Ontario. One of the interesting pieces in the fall-out from that episode, however, is some statistics about eLearning at the High School level in the United States.

According to the North American Council on Online Learning:

More than 90 percent of public colleges and universities offer online courses, and high schools have offered virtual learning for more than a decade. Virtual schools served 700,000 students in the 2005-06 school year, mostly at the high school level in the United States.

These are US Stats, but interesting nonetheless. Obviously eLearning is a staple of “higher” education, yet adoption at the High School level seems to remain painfully slow.

Study on eSchool and Community Involvement

An interesting study is taking place in Wisconsin regarding online schooling and community involvement.

Lawrence University government professor Arnold Shober wants to learn more about why elementary and secondary students choose online schooling and how it affects their potential for community involvement.
…
His main question, he said, is what the likelihood is that these students will become civically engaged in their communities down the road.

“The stereotype is that they are isolated from the world, but that’s not necessarily the case,” he said.

In my experience, the students taking online courses aren’t the isolated ones, but instead the ones who are looking to excel or who are making up courses for those they had problems with in the traditional school system. I’m interested to see what this study discovers.

The original article appears at the Appleton Post-Crescent.