Online Learning and Motivation

I finished reading November's Empowering Learners this week.  In the final chapter he discusses online learning and mentions three online high schools that currently exist.  While high schools are still relatively exclusively "seat time only", we are seeing increasing amounts of colleges that offer courses that are wholly or partly online. He mentions that the spread of online learning has been limited in primary and secondary grades by states and districts not recognizing the standards and validity of courses. I think his next edition of this book will see a change in this chapter.  As the Common Core State Standards are being adopted by so many states, there will be a greater opportunity for development of courses that will work around the country.   As school districts, consulting groups and independent companies develop more online materials that align with the Common Core, I believe more students may have the opportunity to take courses online.  With the advent of programs like Skype, Google+, Face Time and other online video sharing and communication an online course could offer more interaction between teachers and students than ever before. This increased methods of communication between students, peers and teachers would help teachers design engaging and creative lessons that would not only be standards based but also provide students with a greater degree of freedom to problem solve and present solutions (21st century skills!). At the high school level, online courses could help students catch up on credits they may have lost earlier in their careers.  Many of the students who come to my program either failed or lost credit in most of their freshman (and some sophomore) courses.  Studies show that many of these students end up dropping out, because they lose motivation to go to school because they feel they have fallen too far behind. As it is, we offer directed studies or altered schedules to help students make up their credits, and many take advantage of this.  Currently, I have a senior who is really motivated to graduate working in my freshman Algebra 1 class to make up his credit. An online class might offer him a similar opportunity and would have allowed more freedom in his daily schedule. Several other seniors have English credits to make up.  One of them is interested in computers has recently gotten hooked on Glogster from a recent English project. He has expressed interest in doing more with it or similar projects for his directed study. If we had an online, project based course created it would provide more opportunities for him and his teacher to discover other ways for him to present his knowledge. November mentions that most students who succeed in online courses are similarly motivated.
By no means do I think that students should take all of their coursework online, and, according to November  neither do the founders of the online high schools.  One even mentions that they want and encourage their students to step away from the computers, go out to find information and use the computer to share what they have found.  Real world experience is important and nothing makes up for face to face interaction.  The point being made is similar to what we have been talking about in class: the technology should be used to provide access to the greater world. I think it would be cool to teach an online course where I could set up interviews with people at their jobs, record our questions and the person actually using math at their job and have students respond to the posts. Mathematical modeling is frequently referenced in the Common Core standards (especially linear, logrithmic and exponential models), and I think that some of the problems we come up with are a little simplistic or we don't have enough information to make a realistic simulation.  I often get asked the question, "When would I ever use this in real life miss?"  These videos would speak to it and I could have students post comments or maintain a blog about the interviews.  Although time constraints are kind of tricky, I wonder if I could even incorporate this idea into my current classroom. Anyone have suggestions of people I could interview?