Last year I spent a great deal of time studying education. There was a lot of momentum at the state level spanning every branch on government.
Though much of the debate involving education surrounded financial equity Gov. Matt Blunt announced the roll-out of Missouri's first digital campus.
From the states viewpoint, Taney County is easy to appease. A focus on "workforce" development provides simple solutions far from the complexities of trying to understand or figure out what types of jobs will be needed in the future. Unfortunately, the world isn't slowing down and access to education is becoming available to all.
The practice of sending white collar jobs overseas is becoming commonplace and while unemployment rates rise, wages are rising overseas for skilled tech-labor.
While local control over schools has positive attributes, access to education is surpassing district and even international boundaries. The social value of interacting among local peers is the only variable that remains constant as we explore education in the future.
A few Online Courses:
Stanford - Entire Computer Science curriculum and materials.
Penn State - 36,000 Book Library
Carnegie Mellon University - Open Learning Center
Covenant Theological Seminary - Free Theology Courses
Foreign Language Education - Swedish, Hungarian, Italian
Whatcom: Math
