According to the Sloan Consortium, the nation’s largest association of institutions and organizations committed to quality online education, more than one million students (k-12) are now taking classes online.   This is a 47 percent increase in only two years.

Education and the Internet have much in common; both are advocates for access.  Online learning serves a wide range of needs, from remedial to accelerated instruction, and four out of five school districts use more than one provider of online classes, including postsecondary institutions, virtual schools within a district’s home state, independent vendors, and education service agencies.  It is an incredibly exciting prospect.  Children in Wisconsin can learn Russian or an engineering student in Boston can take a class on Emily Dickinson.

Online learning is unlikely to replace the physical classroom just as e books are unlikely to replace hard backed just as hard backed books are unlikely to replace paperbacks; however, more options equal the ability to meet more information needs and curiosities.

For a full report, check out www.sloanconsortium.org