For the rest of the article, go to Sign On to National School Choice Week 2012!

Their teacher is working in front of a computer screen, talking to them in real-time via online video from a tiny upstairs bedroom of his Rock Island home.

This is a form of online learning, or distance education, which people mostly associate with college-level coursework.

Online teaching, like what Chapman does, is rare for kindergarten through 12th-grade education systems in this region, but it’s growing more popular elsewhere across the U.S. and the rest of the world.

For the rest of the article, go to Online classrooms: More teachers ride virtual circuit

The goal of the Academy is to place students in an environment that reduces the influence of factors that prevent them from learning and to provide positive support for academic success while promoting and encouraging good social skills. The staff consists of the director, counselor, four core content area teachers, two instructional aides, two mental health workers, secretary, custodian, and two cafeteria workers. Sammy Grime is our new addition to the ALE staff. He is in his second year as a science teacher.

Curriculum is delivered in classrooms in the four core subject areas by highly qualified teachers. Electives, credit recovery, preparation for the GED, and Virtual High School along with small group tutoring are also offered. This will be the third year for the JAG Program (Jobs for Arkansas Graduates). This course will provide an opportunity for students to receive much needed information and understanding of the workforce.

Social Skills are taught by each home room teacher five days a week using the ARTS Program (Aggression Regression Training). Each week students are taught a new word in social skills and learn to apply it through scenarios and by examples.

A Boot Camp is located on the Fountain Hill Campus but is not a part of the ALE Program. Boot Camp serves both school districts by providing a structured environment for disruptive and disorderly students in grades 7-12. Last year it served a combine population of twelve students from both districts.

For the rest of the article, go to Hamburg School District: Report to the Public

Upside Learning has constantly strived to address the multifarious platforms in the technology space, with Augmented Reality being one of the most important ones. For some years, the company has been exploring this technology and finding the best ways to utilize it in the learning domain. It has successfully developed AR applications like Pune Layar, an augmented reality application for mobile phones developed first time for an Indian city; and AR Street Racing, a simple racing game.

For the rest of the article, go to Upside Learning Develops Augmented Reality Cover For Elearning! Magazine

In addition, as Connections Academy co-founder Mickey Revenaugh points out in our story, districts that contract with for-profit companies like hers can offer a wider range of online options than if they had to build it all themselves. It’s not just the rural school in Arkansas that can now offer Mandarin. It’s that amazing online math curriculum that you want your students to benefit from, or the turnkey solution that will allow districts to serve families that opt out of public schooling for religious or political reasons.

For the rest of the article, go to Mutually Assured Learning

The new online service will be available starting Monday, and will allow parents to log in via PowerSchool and register each of their returning children.

Parents also can use PowerSchool to update important information, as well as print, sign and deliver required forms to the district office at 2545 Greenway.

For the rest of the article, go to Online school registration offered by USD 470 for first time

The board is scheduled to meet Monday morning in Little Rock. One item on its agenda is a request from the Arkansas Virtual Academy in Little Rock to increase its enrollment cap from 500 to 1,500 students. The school has students from kindergarten through the eighth grade.

For the rest of the article, go to Arkansas Board of Education to consider slew of charter school-related items

The school sought to raise its enrollment cap from 500 to 1,500. The state board voted 7-1 to deny the request after several members expressed reservations.

Jerry Jones, board chairman of the Arkansas Virtual Academy, speaks Monday at a state Board of Education meeting. (John Lyon photo)

The academy, known as ARVA for short, is an open-enrollment charter school that offers instruction over the Internet to students in grades K-8. It is affiliated with Virginia-based company K12, which provides most of its software.

For the rest of the article, go to Education board nixes virtual school expansion

Blended learning, where students take both online and live classes, and online learning have dramatically increased in the past few years as more and more schools provide online classes for credit recovery, summer school and to offer subjects where there is no available on-site teacher. The Los Angeles Times reported that LA Unified school district has gone from just 300 students using online credit recovery last year to over 2,500 this year. According to Clayton Christensen, author of Disrupting Class, “In the year 2000, roughly 45,000 K-12 students took an online course. In 2009, more than 3 million K-12 students did.”

For the rest of the article, go to VirtualEDU.org Offers Online High School & Middle School Classes for Under $50 a Month

Sides pointed out, again, that students are held to the same standards as other children in the public school system, adding the group at Virtual Academy has performed well on state-required performance testing. He said the effectiveness of the school is proof the system works, adding he hopes the Legislature agrees and allow more students in the system.

For the rest of the article, go to Online education in Arkansas for free?