From runners in Ancient Greece and trained carrier pigeons in the Middle Ages to the Pony Express of early America, fax machines of the 90s to today’s ever-present internet connection, humankind has relied on the technology of the times to communicate. When members of a society cannot communicate with one another, breakdowns occur and the society is at risk of collapse. The impact communication technology is having on the world at large can be felt at every level of society: from education to social activism, communication technology is making it possible for anyone anywhere in the world to make an impact. While technology has brought about great change and made the seemingly impossible possible; the role that technology plays in society has its detractors. Humanity does not always accept the novel. Change is always greeted with suspicion and society can be slow to shift its paradigm.
Today, no one can deny the power of having a literate society. Literacy rates are at an all-time global high. Any student who went to school in the 20th century studied using tomes of paper bound together in the relic known as textbooks. Textbooks were not handwritten, as was the norm prior to the invention of the printing press. Rather, they were mass-produced so that anyone in the school system could have access to educational materials. Mass-produced printed material has allowed society to become more literate, which in turn has helped the global economy. However, when the printing press was invented in the 15th century, it was not heralded as a hero. Rather, it has been credited with the dissolution of power held by the Catholic Church. (Dewar, 2000) Similar to how the printing press revolutionized the dissemination of information, online education is revolutionizing the way people learn.
K-12 online learning began in the 1990s. A decade later, at least 14 states had planned or