Distance Learning K-12 School Launches Virtual Community

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 03/18/09

##AUTHORSPLIT##<--->

Laurel Springs School, an accredited private school offering K-12 distance learning, has launched a virtual community for its students and parents using Community Server from Telligent. MyLaurelSprings.com will provide an online community for those who learn from home in locations around the world. The site will enable students to communicate with fellow students, make friends, join school clubs, and create study groups. Parents will be able to interact with other parents.

"We are thrilled with the immediate response from our high school students to our new virtual community," said Marilyn Mosley Gordanier, founder and executive director. "We plan to roll it out to the middle schoolers in the coming months." Gordanier said socialization has been a challenge for the students since they take classes from home and reside in 40 countries.

MyLaurelSprings.com provides a secure, password protected community for students. Using the same technology as the MySpace forums, Telligent Community Server provides students the ability to add friends, create an avatar, join clubs, participate in discussion forums, and upload videos.

Based in Ojai, the school currently has 3,000 students, with 2,000 enrolled in an online college prep high school program.

Community Server Professional Edition includes widgets, messaging and social streams, groups, wikis, support for rich media and video, reporting and analysis features, single sign-on for authentication, and search.