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Friday, June 15, 2012

Digital | As online education spreads, new studies question its effects on students

Digital | As online education spreads, new studies question its effects on students:


As online education spreads, new studies question its effects on students

Online education for K-12 students spread rapidly in the United States this year, aided by new technologies and ideas such as “flipped classrooms,” according to a study released on June 15th. But the extent to which new technologies and approaches might raise student achievement remains unclear. A second study questions whether the net result will be positive.
The New Media Consortium—a group of education technology leaders who study the role of tech in schools—published the first study, its yearly K-12 Horizon Report naming the top six technological trends that are changing the field of education. In addition, the report looks one, three and five years into the future to see which technologies are likeliest to play important roles in U.S. schools.
More people than ever before believe that virtual education could prove important, according to the report, which surveyed experts across the country. Other trends documented in recent years, such as flipped classrooms—where students watch lectures at home on the computer and spend class time doing “homework”—are