“Virtual schooling in state should get a closer look” (Our Views, Aug. 1) calls for additional state oversight of online education. As an organization dedicated to helping kids graduate and succeed, we welcome transparency and accountability but caution against the creation of artificial barriers that will limit student options.

While online learning isn’t for everyone, it’s an effective option for students who aren’t served well in traditional settings and for students whose health or family situation might keep them from attending a traditional school. Online programs are attracting previously homeschooled students back into the public school system. Children can’t enroll in virtual schools without their parents’ consent and involvement, and parents are actively involved in monitoring their student’s academic progress.

For the rest of the article, go to Online learning regulation sufficient

Online learning — whether that’s an entirely virtual high school system that hands out diplomas or a single course in Spanish — has emerged from the “fringe of education to the heart of it,” said the keynote speaker at the Online Leadership Summit this week.

“When kids sit in a classroom and they are handed a textbook and they can look out the window and know that, that is not how information is distributed in the world, you know we have an antiquated system,” said Susan Patrick, president of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning at the Skirvin Hotel Thursday.

Her comments were to a room of about 60 school superintendents from across the nation who came to Oklahoma City to learn the latest national and international trends in Internet based education.

For the rest of the article, go to Online education discussed at Oklahoma City conference