Over the years people have gotten more comfortable with the idea of virtual interactions in place of real world contact. Think of all the friends that you have on Twitter, Facebook or Myspace. How many of them have you seen in real life versus how many will you probably never meet? If you are anything like the rest of us then there are more and more that fall into the “never meet” column. So, it should come as no surprise that schools have been slowly working toward online classroom systems. There are some parents that do not like the idea of Virtual Schools because they do not think that the children will get the same level of socialization as in a physical school. Other parents feel the lack of socialization is a good thing because of the rise in violence in public schools. With the new advances in Online Educational Software students can a lot of the benefits from socialization without the danger.

The benefits of Virtual Classrooms to the students include:

· Having all of the reference material at the tips of their fingers. If the student does not understand a word or subject then they are able to quickly get up to speed and back into the discussion.

· Note taking and exam preparation that has never been easier. All of the email, chats, discussion groups and other means of communication are logged along with the student’s notes so that they can look back and review the information at any time.

· A richer learning experience. In the past having a movie or visual aid was something of a treat for students because the normal form of teaching was by lecture. Now the teacher can easily combine their lecture with audio and video clips to fully immerse the students in the subject matter at hand.

Online Classroom Systems offer just as many benefits to the parents:

· It offers them a flexible schedule. Since a lot of Online Educational Software will allow the courses to be taken on variable schedules, the parents have more options for their work or family plans.

· Virtual Classrooms are real time and money savers because there is no travel time involved. A typical commute to school and back is around thirty minutes to an hour which equals out to around 5 hours per week that you could be doing other things and quite a bit of money saved on gasoline.

· Virtual Schools also allow the parents an unparalleled level of involvement in their children’s education. They can get feedback from the teachers, look over their children’s class work and be a part of the process.