We live in a cyber world. Who would have thought even a few years ago that we’d all use “ Facebook” and “Google” as verbs, and “tweet” would mean something other than the sound a bird makes?

Children and young adults born into this technology – cyber natives – often make no distinction between ‘real’ and ‘cyber’ worlds and in fact often prefer to communicate and socialize in the digital realm. The growing influence of digital technology on young adults’ lives is now extending into education, and most students use the Internet and other digital learning resources as naturally as they do pen or pencil. Many have taken an online class, and a growing number of students are getting their entire public school educations virtually, at virtual or cyber schools.

Many high quality virtual schools — like my school, Commonwealth Connections Academy – naturally build into their educational models opportunities for students to interact, collaborate and even socialize online, and build and cultivate active cyber learning communities. In a quality cyber school, students will be afforded many synchronous classroom opportunities with classmates and teachers. Some might criticize these classroom interchanges as less desirable than the physical social interchange in the traditional classroom. However, I contend these synchronous classroom interchanges provide the student the ability to exchange ideas in the absence of many of the distractions of the traditional classroom. The virtual student is not judged by classmates based the clothing they wear, how they look or even their age. They are also not distracted by public address announcements or the disruptive student. The student in the virtual classroom is judged by the quality of the student’s contribution to the academic discussion. The opportunities to develop collaborative group projects through video conferencing, email and other forums mirrors the “real world” collaborative work environments many adults experience in their chosen professions.

Outside of these synchronous classroom exchanges, students who attend a quality online program will have regular discussions with teachers by phone and/or email. It has been my experience that many cyber students are better able to advocate for themselves in terms of individual learning needs and defending work submitted than many students from a traditional classroom. The discussions between the online teacher and student are more individualized and in-depth than can often occur in the traditional classroom of 25 or more students. Many teachers and students who previously taught in, or attended a traditional school, report that they feel they know each other better in the online classroom than they ever did in their respective brick and mortar schools.

What about the opportunities for face to face socialization in a cyber school? In Commonwealth Connections Academy we have over 400 face to face “field trips” across our state. These field trips may be science labs in our mobile classroom, book fairs, art lessons or any number of social and educational experiences for students and families. These experiences may be content specific such as a lake effect snow study in Erie or wide ranging in scope such as a trip to the Renaissance Faire or a state park. In any respect these field trips give students the chance to meet with teachers, peers and students of varied ages. This brings me to a key point in terms of the “socialization” of the cyber student. The cyber school partners with the family to provide these opportunities. The parent or learning coach is with the student for many of these experiences. In many cases the students and families from the cyber school have more opportunities to meet individuals of varied backgrounds and ages than in any other education setting. The cyber school student interacts with adults and teachers who mentor them in his or her educational pursuits at a unique level compared to traditional schooling models.

Finally, we have to remember that today’s technology natives understand how to communicate via cell phones, computers, and other varied mobile and electronic devices. They feel “connected” to each other when communicating through these mechanisms in a way many who did not grow up with this technology cannot understand. In other words, they are, and will be socializing in ways yet to be defined.