Posted at: 08/31/2009 6:59 PM
By: David Springer

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Education Without the Classroom

(ABC 6 NEWS) -- One aspect of high school, is the interaction with other students and teachers.

However, more and more high school students are giving up the social factor and instead attending class without ever leaving their homes.

Did you know that students could attend high school... online?

Tia Hodenfield did.

She switched from Austin High to the online Blue Sky Charter School last school year.

“It was more I can do it by myself. And there were fewer distractions. There was not a bunch of yelling in the hallways on anything like that,” says Hodenfield.
 
“It's like going to school, except at your house. All you have to do is get up and you don't even really have to get dressed. All you have to do is go and sit down and start your class,” says Hodenfield.

Carla Anderson-Diekmann used to be one of Hodenfield's teachers at Austin High.

Now, she's a online counselor for Blue Sky.

“We were the 1st 100% online school in the state of Minnesota,” says Anderson-Diekmann.

And she says, like online enrollment at local colleges, the numbers of online high school students is also on the rise.

“Three years ago we had about 150 students and last year we had over 800 that were steadily enrolled in our school,” says Anderson-Dierkmann.

That number includes Hodenfield, you graduated from Blue Sky several months ago.

Ironically, she now attends classes at Riverland Community College.

“Gonna be going here for human services and then after that, after I get my degree, I'm going to go join the Ameri-Corp,” says Hodenfield.