For the rest of the article, go to Traditional School vs. Virtual School

The classroom won’t be filled with actual students, but instead virtual ones through the fully interactive TeachLivE Lab.

“This is a great tool because a student can go practice in front of a classroom and if they don’t do so well they can say to themselves, ‘alright I’ll just try to do better tomorrow’,” said Education Professor Brian Monahan.  “As opposed to the embarrassment of performing poorly in front of a real class and going home crying.”

For the rest of the article, go to Pace Unveils Virtual Classroom

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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Along those lines, Berry has outlined five changes he believes need to be made to the future of teacher education.

1. INFORMED BY NEED. University-based education schools currently produce about 170,000 graduates every year — but only 70 percent of those actually enter teaching. One reason is the mismatch between production and market demand. In some “teacher surplus” states, universities graduate far too many teachers prepared for subjects and areas in low demand (such as elementary, physical education, social studies), while math, science, and special education vacancies continue to frustrate school leaders as well as parents. And because of the way education schools are funded, most universities offer just about every kind of teacher education major, irrespective of the local needs of area districts looking for new recruits. In the future, as long as we have the right policies in place, education schools should recruit and prepare those who are needed — and use the cost savings to recruit the right teachers who can teach the right subjects — as well as invest more in the right kind of pedagogical training.

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According to Evergreen Education Group, a consulting firm that works with online schools, an estimated 250,000 students nationwide are enrolled in full-time virtual schools, a 40 percent increase in the last three years. And the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, a trade group, says two million kids take at least one class online.

Advocates say online schooling can save states money, offer curricula customized to each student and give parents more choice in education.

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Paralleling students on campus, online cyber security students learn not only basic technical skills and theory, but also how business needs, such as risk management and regulatory requirements, drive network security.

“The Sloan-C award for Outstanding Online Program is a high honor for NYU-Poly because it is bestowed by acknowledged leaders in virtual education,” said NYU-Poly President Jerry M. Hultin. “Furthermore, it recognizes innovation in an academic program that is vitally important to society because it addresses in real-time the critical shortage of highly educated experts needed to protect and secure our infrastructure, government and personal digital lives.”

For the rest of the article, go to Sloan-C Awards NYU-Poly’s Cyber Security Virtual Master’s Program [Professional Services Close - Up]

For the past two years, Connections Academy virtual public schools have used DimensionU as an engaging resource for students to practice their newly acquired skills.

With content aligned to state, national and the new Common Core State Standards, the DimensionU instructional software engages students in a series of first-person action adventure missions that incorporate three-dimensional graphics, sound, and animation comparable to those in popular video games. By effectively navigating the myriad of embedded lessons, students quickly master concepts previously discussed in class. The software also provides automatic progress tracking for students so teachers can provide additional instruction to help them gain mastery of specific concepts.

For the rest of the article, go to Dimensionu Extends Agreement With Connections Education To Offer Game-Based Learning Solution To Virtual School Students Nationwide