From Virtual School Meanderings, Michael Barbour’s latest post that includes a list of posts related to the latest posts and articles on online education. http://virtualschooling.wordpress.com/2012/06/30/digital-pulse-06292012/.

One particular link immediately caught my eye. It relates to the growth of online education for students, as well as commentary on where we still need to go to achieve better programming and teacher education and support. Two quotes from the post at Digital Learning Now! (see this URL: http://digitallearningnow.com/blog/the-evolving-classroom-lessons-go-virtual/) sum up the spirit of the post and include:

“We have passed the place where the local third-grade teacher is equipped with enough knowledge or skills to support her 24 students. She needs to be able to meet their diverse needs.” (CNN education contributor Dr.Steve Perry)

and

“Teachers and administrators need to be exposed to it and trained with it and have time to get comfortable with it. Once that happens, you can use technology to cater to your students’ needs.” (Teacher Jacquelyn Vivalo)

When I was a classroom teacher in Pennsylvania, the school district I worked for provided a voluntary workshop in using computers in the classroom. This was back in 1982 or 1983, when the only computers available to us were TI 99A and Commodore 64. However, it began my own love affair with computers, both at home and in the classroom. Despite my interest in this area of education, I let myself fall behind on its development. But I’m back to virtual education now, learning a lot, and promoting everything I see that seems promising or interesting to classroom educators, education administrators, and pre-service teachers. The sites linked in this post are among the best I’ve seen.

#educ_dr