Online learning may well become the delivery system of choice for corporations and schools alike. To appreciate the import of the new strategies, note the context and the driving forces that brought us to a place where online learning has become especially attractive. Even though we have been trying to bring technology into classrooms for two decades, much of the staff development has been ineffective. The track record is unimpressive. Most reports show a failure to penetrate daily practice in an integrated manner.
Educational technologies remain tangential to most classrooms.
Many teachers and schools earnestly seek new models that might lead to more impressive results. The professional development offerings have been slim, at best, and are usually dominated by a training model rather than a learning model. We run folks through a linear sequence designed to introduce them to all the neat functions they can perform with the tool at hand. We may even offer practice. What we rarely do is show them how the tool might improve student learning in social studies, science or math.