One of the top themes of the National Rural Education Technology Summit yesterday was definitely the virtualization of education.  Convened by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough, government leaders such as FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra, and Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan spoke to more than 100 rural educators attending the Summit.  Discussion ranged from obstacles of teachers to the opportunities of broadband, with several institutional speakers sharing success stories in between, two of which are highlighted below:

PBS -

Rob Lippincott, Senior Vice President of Education at PBS, delivered a speech noting the increasing resources his organization is investing in Internet tools.  “Teachers value digital media,” he proclaimed with the statistic that 76% of teachers use digital media regularly.  He finds that teachers are increasingly using media as a learning accelerator and that kids learn better with interactive engagement.

Florida Virtual School –

Julie Young, President & CEO of the Florida Virtual School, an accredited, public, online e-learning school serving students in grades K-12 all over the world.  Young serves millions of students, targeting rural, urban, and home-schooled students in particular.  Young countered the myth that virtual education is isolating, noting that the experience is very high touch for both students and teachers.  Watch my interview with Young below and click here for a recent guest posting from Young on NextGenWeb.

The event closed with words from Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra about the abundance of support from the White House in embracing technology for better government efficiency and transparency, including for education.  You can watch Chopra’s speech below:

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