Resource Annex

A Classroom of One: How Online Learning Is Changing Our Schools and Colleges, Gene I. Maeroff (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
A reporter's look at the current state of online learning. Maeroff examines online programs from around the world, at every grade level, and from multiple points of view.

Distance Education: The Complete Guide to Design, Delivery, and Improvement, by Judith L. Johnson (New York, NY: Teachers College Press, 2003).
A look at the future of distance education. Johnson focuses on how we can ensure quality in distance education. She offers several case studies of delivery models, as well as the perspectives of individual teachers.

Guide to Online High School Courses, by the National Education Association (2001). Available online at:
www.nea.org/technology/onlinecourseguide.html
The NEA, recognizing early on that e-learning would become a regular part of students' educational experiences, issued these guidelines for developing quality online courses for high school students.

Policy for Open and Distance Learning, edited by H.D. Perraton & Helen Lentell (New York, NY: RoutledgeFalmer, 2004).
The fourth volume in a series that focuses on distance learning in the United Kingdom. Fifteen different contributors offer unique perspectives on providing distance learning using both low and high technologies. The insights are definitely applicable to policymaking in the United States.

"2004 School Improvement Process Accreditation Standards for Distance Education Schools," published by the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools. Available online at:
www2.boisestate.edu/nasc/distance_education.htm
The association has issued accreditation standards that include online schools. To read the standards document, go to the above Web site and click on "Annual Report."

A Retrospective on Twenty Years of Education Technology Policy, by Katie McMillan Culp, Margaret Honey, & Ellen Mandinach. (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 2003). Available online at:
www.nationaledtechplan.org/participate/20years.pdf
While this report does not focus specifically on online or distance learning, it does give a valuable overview of how technology has been incorporated into public education during the last 20 years. Important background information for those wishing to take a deeper look at how the Internet has changed the nature of education.

Web-based:

Distance Education Clearinghouse/ K-12 (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin-Extension). Available online at:
www.uwex.edu/disted/k12.html
A good site for keeping up to date on current trends in distance education, with pages dedicated to Web-based and video-based technologies. This site also has many great links.

International Society for Technology in Education (Eugene, OR & Washington, DC) Available online at:
www.iste.org/index.cfm
ISTE is a major contributor of research and resources on all aspects of technology in education. This is a great site for teachers who want to incorporate technology more effectively into their classroom instruction.

Northwest Education is available online in both PDF and HTML versions. Look for Web exclusives, marked with .