Can Computers Replace Classrooms?[K12 hires lobbyists contributes to politicians back school choice]

Deaf kid or youngster with physical impairments. Lots of reasons this would work better for some individuals. The more options the better. Totally agree.

Or a kid that needs more than the schools can offer. Our daughter will be doing WAVA ... the virtural school partnership with K12 and the state of Washington next year when she starts middle school. At the end of 2nd grade she tested at 8th grade reading and 7th grade math, so they let her skip 3rd grade. She is now in 5th and the teacher is "letting" her do the 6th grade curriculum by herself in class ... great for a girl who tested at 7th grade over a year ago.

I am looking forward to WAVA where they test the kids before they start to figure out what grade to put them in in each subject, and let them go at their own pace. It will be liberating. Her twin brother is doing fine in the public school system (we live in an area of educational throwbacks).

Her older brother did a K12/Aventa health class because the class did not fit in his schedule, and is doing AP physics now because the school did not offer it. I am thoroughly pleased with their system There is another company, DreamBox learning that is doing amazing things with remedial math for schools that can't figure out what to do with some of these kids. I have a freind whose school is using it and it is amazing! It is catching kids up that are even years behind very quickly. So much for brick and mortar ... this computer program is doing such a better job, and for way less money!

My wife is a director in one of the first cyber schools. It's a cash cow. School districts turn over the cash they get to teach a student for a year. The cyber school has none of the bricks and mortar expense and leverages the teacher to student ratio. Administrative costs are minimal.

School districts hate them for their success. Their students aren't all successful, but many of them are superlative.

Our county recently had a public school superintendent who resigned saying that the wave of the future is on-line classes and he wanted to be involved with it.

Ten years from now we’ll see all those school buildings turned into condominiums.

Seymour PapertWorks by Papert.
In the sixties, this MIT professor carried out educational projects on every continent, some of them in remote villages in developing countries. Papert holds a role in developing influential cutting-edge opportunities for children to participate in the digital world. Papert lives in Maine, where he has founded a small laboratory called the Learning Barn. He is is credited with inspiring the first initiative aimed at giving a personal computer to every student of a state. He spends a large part of his time working in the Maine Youth Center in Portland, the state's facility for teenagers convicted of serious offenses.
In late 1999 and early 2000 a one-time state surplus enabled Maine [Gov. King] to make the dramatic step of announcing a plan to equip all of its middle school students and teachers with a personal learning device-- June 2009 that it placed an order for more than 64,000 MacBooks for students and faculty in grades 7 through 12, and would be placing an additional order for up to 7,000 more laptops in the coming weeks
http://bangordailynews.com/2011/06/28/news/auburn-oak-hill-students-to-get-laptops-for-summer/
10 years after laptops come to Maine schools, educators say technology levels playing field for students

9. Are homeschoolers eligible to receive laptops through the Maine Learning Technology Initiative?
This program is not available to homeschooled students.

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