Bill Lager
2002
E.C.O.T. stands for Electronic Classroom Of Tomorrow. It's Ohio's first statewide "virtual" charter school and one that's come in for more than a little criticism due to gaps between what it promised and what it delivered, as well as for being a profit-seeking venture in a world that finds all such motives suspect. But it is also an important pioneer in a new field and its 21 first-year (2001) graduates can fairly be compared to successful education explorers. In this hefty (300 page) volume, E.C.O.T.'s iron-willed founder, Bill Lager, melds his school's tale with individual profiles of most of those initial graduates in the first book I have seen about the challenges and opportunities presented by e-schooling. Yes, it's somewhat self-serving, but it also opens a welcome window on an exciting and little-understood corner of American education. The ISBN is 0972346805; the publisher is EOS Publishing. The book is most readily available via Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0972346805/qid=1040144595/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/104-8993071-0866325?v=glance&s=books. For information about the school itself, surf to www.ecotohio.org.
