These are the community colleges of Erie, Finger Lakes, Corning, Genesee and Monroe, which together form the Online Western New York Learning Alliance (Owl).

All of these organisations have received full accreditation from the Middle State Association of Colleges and Schools and have been authorised by Suny to offer online degrees in certain subject areas.

For the rest of the article, go to Owl e-learning alliance announced in New York

The international reach of the movement was underlined by Dr. Daniel, who said that initial concerns that the traffic would all be from richer countries to poorer ones have not been borne out. “Instead we see a course on tropical medicine from Nkrumah University in Ghana being adapted by the University of Michigan,” he said in an interview after his speech.

For the rest of the article, go to Building Schools Out of Clicks, Not Bricks

When it comes to creating open online courses that reflect the classroom experience, however, it pays to be a professor of computer science. Coursera’s founders are well equipped to solve problems such as automatic grading, peer grading and 1,000-student class discussions that make an online class size of 100,000 students manageable.

For the rest of the article, go to Drop In! Top Schools From Berkeley to Yale Now Offer Free Online Courses

“This allows them to reach incremental goals,” Flanagan said. “They’re going to be successful. We can see it right before our eyes.”

He even shared with the students a little about his own upbringing in New York and how he had to transition to living in the suburbs and didn’t fit in very well with the other students.

VR Tech Director Deb Feenstra was happy to see Flanagan spend time hearing about her students’ experiences and successes at the 173-student school.

“He talks a lot about virtual learning” Feenstra said. “You hear a whole lot about it, but I’m glad he got to come in and see who we are.”

For the rest of the article, go to State Superintendent Mike Flanagan touts Holland Public Schools

For the rest of the article, go to In the schools: Students wear red on Valentine’s Day; students attend global classrooms

Coinciding with the first annual national “Digital Learning Day” on Feb. 1, Notre Dame officially went online with its Pearson Fronter Learning Management System, giving students, teachers and parents the ability to access school information and classroom materials.

For the rest of the article, go to New virtual classroom system debuts at Notre Dame Academy

For the rest of the article, go to Students of Online Schools Are Lagging

Thankfully, changes in education financing (which include permitting dollars to follow children to the school of their choice) and rapidly advancing technology have made better educational options of a family’s choosing within reach. And many families have already made this choice.

For the rest of the article, go to The NYT Online Learning Smear Campaign

Board member Maureen Hanse expressed some skepticism about sharing staff members.

“When CASDA came here to discuss this, they were talking about sharing people, but I don’t really think that would work,” Hanse said. “I do, however, like the idea of enhanced communication, like between school principals, so they can discuss ideas for how schools can improve.”

For the rest of the article, go to C-A seeks future savings

In 2010, more than 6.1 million students signed up for at least one online course, about 10 percent more than 5.5 million the previous year, reports the Sloan Consortium Survey of Online Learning.

“It’s scaling quickly,” said John Katzman, founder of 2tor Inc., a New-York based tech company that has partnered with universities including Georgetown, UNC and USC to build, administer and market online postgraduate degree programs that he says seriously compete with traditional on-campus study.

For the rest of the article, go to Startup 2tor Rides Surge In Online Education