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With the radio playing softly in the
background and munching on spoonfuls of noodles and cheese, Maria
Vespa sat at her family's kitchen counter to take her geography
mid-term on a recent afternoon.


      The 15-year-old stared intently at her computer screen as test
questions popped up. She'd study each for a minute, take another
bite of lunch and click on an answer. When she got stumped, she
pulled out her notebook.


      "That's one of the great things about online school," Maria
said. "You get to use your notes when you're taking tests."


      Another great thing about online school: instant grades. A few
moments after Maria answered the last test question, her score
popped up.


      "I got a B," she said. "I would have loved an A, but a B is
still pretty good."


      Maria, one of five children in the Vespa family, has been going
to virtual school for three years. The experience takes students
outside traditional classrooms and plops them in front of computer
screens - at home or any place else - where they read lessons
online and interact with teachers and sometimes other students via
chat rooms.


      The number of students in the Duluth area enrolled full-time at
an online school is small - about 1 percent in the Duluth school
district - but it's on the rise.


      During the 2005-2006 school year, 25 students attended an
all-day virtual school. This year that number is 92, making virtual
schools the third biggest draw for Duluth students behind the
Hermantown and Proctor school districts, according to Tom DeSutter,
student enrollment monitor for the Duluth school district.

      Duluth Superintendent Keith Dixon said he expects to see the
trend continue.


      "We see this happening not only here but in other districts,"
Dixon said. "It's sort of a state and national trend right now,
and I guess I don't see it just stopping."


      Maria is already on her second school - Minnesota Virtual High
School - after encountering problems with teachers' turnaround time
on questions at her first online academy. Despite that glitch, the
ninth-grader said she likes it.

      "I like having the freedom to go do other things when I want to
and not be restricted to a daily schedule," she said. "It's a lot
better than public school where girls were mean and cliquey; I
hated that."

      She said the experience does not limit her from making friends
or getting involved. She has met a lot of people through church,
where she is in a drama club and a Bible study group. She even
recently went to a school dance.

      "I am a social person, so I like talking to people, and I feel
like I still get to do that," she said. "I still meet people."

      Maria's sister, Anna, who also enrolled in virtual school, has a
different take on the experience.

      While Maria was taking her geography test, the 13-year old Ann
sat in the family's living room lounging on the couch in gym shorts
and a fleece sweat shirt. She was also "at school," with her
laptop opened to an online math lesson.

      "I hate it," she said about going to school online. "It was
different for my sister because none of the girls were really nice
to her, but I never had that problem. All of my best friends are at
school."

      Anna transferred to Minnesota Virtual High School from
Hermantown Middle School this year after her parents bought her a
horse. The deal was, if she got the horse, the aspiring jockey had
to take care of it. The flexibility of the online schedule allows
her to get over to the nearby ranch where it's boarded a few times
a week to do that. But Anna said she misses her friends,
extracurricular activities and the structure of traditional school.

      "It's harder for me to concentrate like this," she said.
"I'll be doing an assignment and I'll want to go on Facebook or do
something else. Plus, it's all reading, and I hate reading. I like
being shown what to do instead of having to read what to do."


      The experience seems to have compromised her education a little
bit, Anna said, because it doesn't require her to memorize
information for tests the way traditional schools do. She also said
teachers aren't always as helpful when they're not instructing you
in person.

      "Sometimes I'll ask a question, and they won't give me the
right answer," Anna said. "I will keep trying to ask but without
being able to show them what I'm talking about, we sometimes just
can't get anywhere. Then I just end up saying OK and pretending I
understand."

      The difference in the sisters' experiences is not uncommon,
according to Bruce Munson, associate dean for the College of
Education and Human Service Professions at the University of
Minnesota Duluth.


      "The perspective is that this does appeal to a certain kind of
student, particularly those who do not feel included in a typical
school setting for whatever reason," Munson said. "Also for those
who are more rurally located; the options provided by a virtual
school might work really well for them."

      Aaron Doering would add self-motivated students to the list, but
he said the appeal is growing even wider. Teen moms, for example,
have been enrolling in virtual schools because of the flexibility
it allows them as parents.


      Doering, an instructor at the University of Minnesota's Twin
Cities campus, trains education students to teach online.


      "We are going to see more and more students enrolling in these
online schools because of ease of accessibility," he said.


      As the numbers grow, the teaching methods and involved
technologies must evolve to allow for more collaboration between
students and teachers, he said. When that doesn't happen, it can
lead students like Anna to feel isolated and for some to drop out.

      "We have seen such a quick movement to online learning that the
preparation for teachers to know how to do it hasn't always kept
up," Doering said. "It should no longer be responding to
questions in a book online. If you're teaching about climate
change, bring in someone from the weather channel to discuss it
with students online. ... If you do it right, you can get students
collaborating with experts and students around the world."


      Even the Duluth school district has ventured into the virtual
world. So far it has only held a couple of video classes for
students scattered in different buildings around the district, but
the district hopes to expand its offerings down the road, Dixon
said.


      Meanwhile, he said, the district doesn't view competition from
virtual schools as a threat.

      "There are multiple reasons students come to school in addition
to academics," Dixon said. "To be with their friends, to
participate in activities, to be a part of all the other things
that are so important to a high school experience. We are in a
unique position to provide all of those things."

Gallery

With the radio playing softly in the
background and munching on spoonfuls of noodles and cheese, Maria
Vespa sat at her family's kitchen counter to take her geography
mid-term on a recent afternoon.


'Virtual schools' gain popularity in Duluth

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