What I Like About New...Technologies.

I am an English teacher. Not the stuffy, corduroy-elbowed educational elitist from memories of middle and high school. It is my ardent belief that reading is the most essential skill a student can learn in school, as it determines their success in almost all the other content areas. So, as I tell my students, I do not just teach Reading, I teach life.
Since I began my career in teaching almost a decade ago, I have searched for new ways to integrate technology into my classroom. Students always seem two steps ahead of me and are bored with "computer lab time" to create a presentation in PowerPoint or type up a paper in Word. In these difficult days of overcrowding and limited financial resources, virtual classrooms are becoming a more tangible option. I want to explore the options of online learning and its effectiveness versus traditional brick-and-mortar schools. Could this be a real solution for students with disabilities or our sweet darlings that have trouble sitting still in a seat for 50 minute classes? How about those students with behavioral problems or the tendency towards truancy? And does it offer the ability to differentiate our classrooms better, giving advanced students the opportunity to explore further?
If I can order dinner, buy movie tickets and talk to my (technologically-impaired) mother face to face all on a laptop, why can a teenager (who knows far more about the in's and out's of the virtual community) not take coursework online?