In Florida, Virtual Classrooms With No Teachers

In a January 17, 2011 New York Times article In Florida, Virtual Classrooms With No Teachers  by Laura Herrera a work colleague after reading the article said "there is always the wrong way to implement change- fast and cheap."

What will drive online education?

This particular article points to how social/state policy "class-reduction amendment, high school classrooms cannot surpass a 25-student limit in core subjects" drives "e-learning lab with 35 to 40 other students" because these virtual labs did not fall under the state classroom student number limits. In essence, online education, in this snapshot, is driven by social policy, economic and to cover failure in the face-to-face classroom and is not necessarily driven by "quality" educational aspirations, objectives or standards. Of course any educational system must negotiate with a variety of social pressures that may or may not be aligned to the educational mission of a particular teacher, institution or governing standard.

It seems the current state of un-clarity or existent (or unrealistic) projections about what online education can be used to accomplish allows for poor online instructional design. One operative myth is how technology (the tool itself) can solve the educational problem vs. the instructor who welds the tool and the thinking/adoptive instructional design decisions that are paramount. There is still little K-12 research. See U.S. Department of Education Study Finds that Good Teaching can be Enhanced with New Technology which  emphasized "good teaching" with the incorporation of technology: "At the same time, good teachers can utilize new technology to accelerate learning and provide extended learning opportunities for students.” It is precisely this relationship between teaching and technology that is in need of further exploration.  

In many instances around the county and world, online education appears to be driven more from reactive conditions (and less proactive ones) to try and plug holes in a sinking ship vs. building a sleek catamaran that can reach this century's horizons.  I suppose one can argue reactive educational policy does not discriminate between face-to-face and online education.