Article 3--The School of the Future

The third article I read was titled "The School of the Future". It painted a picture of "classrooms" which are free of discipline issues, distractions, boundaries, fixed deadlines, and--this is a little weird--the physical presence of students. The school of the future will be heavily dependent on technology to allow students to "log in" to school when they have time instead of at rigidly set times. I definitely see the benefit of this; technology-savvy students who are able to use cutting edge technology to showcase their understanding of complex ideas. However, the drawbacks seem enormous.
1. Monetary cost: Who will pay for this? I have trouble believing that the parents of most of my students will voluntarily cough up money for this, and it certainly isn't coming from the government anytime soon.
2. Socialization: Many students already spend a lot of time on the internet. In a way, it has robbed kids of the ability to approach, speak with, and connect on an emotional level to other people. Socialization is huge. Creating a virtual school would seriously cramp this.
3. Accountability: How do we know kids are doing their own work instead of just cutting and pasting their way to a degree? I have enough trouble with plagiarism now, I can only imagine some of the stuff I would receive if my students didn't do a lot of the work right under my nose.
4. Time: Why would kids need to attend these virtual schools when the mood suits them? What in the world are kids doing other than school? I understand some kids have jobs, but for a vast majority of them, school IS their job.

I really do understand the benefits of having an online community in addition to a real-live classroom. However, I can't fathom the logistical problems associated with this. Instead of the old standby "my dog ate my homework", we would be plagued with hearing "my internet went down" or "my dog ate my computer".
A little over a hundred years ago, the "technology" of having textbooks for students to take home with them and study was a big deal, largely because printed books were in relatively short supply. The increased availability of books through use of the printing press made books available to many kids. This also came at a great cost. It also took a while to train everyone how to learn from the textbook. Year after year, I lose textbooks from kids who don't bring them back. Sure, the classroom of the future will have it's drawbacks; the classroom of today certainly does, too. But I do think that schools will move toward a format which involves more technology, just not this extreme.