21st-century learning

Usually when you visit a school you walk down a quiet hallway and peer in the little windows in the classroom doors. You see one teacher talking to a bunch of students. Every 50 minutes or so a chime goes off and the students fill the hallway and march off to their next class, which is probably unrelated to the one they just left.

America's national security and the upward mobility the country was built upon could collapse if the education system isn't rapidly improved, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Tuesday.

Teachers and administrators at the Mount Airy City Schools are busily preparing to roll out the new Common Core/Essential Standards curriculum set to debut next year — a curriculum that will place more emphasis on critical thinking and problem-solving skills and focus less on rote memorization.

As of fall 2011, 40 states have a state virtual school or state-led online learning initiative, accounting for 536,272 course enrollments, a 19 percent annual increase according to iNacol's report, Keeping Pace 2011.

Desktop virtualization is not a new idea, but when coupled with CDI's recertified computers, it means big savings for K12 schools.