A brief acknowledge of virtual school and E-learning

This is about virtual school and I will upload the E-learning part later.
Virtual school have become popular nowadays not only in the US, it is becoming a global term to any K-12 learning activity or program that uses the Internet or other technologies. However, there is no a definition for virtual school that is acceptable by general public. This is also why Tom Clark stated, “If you ask 30 people to define a "virtual school," you will probably get 30 different answers.” (Virtual Schools: Trends and Issues, Tom Clark, 2001). He defined "virtual school" as "an educational organization that offers K-12 courses through Internet or Web-based methods."
In fact, virtual school came from distance learning. According to Verduin and Clark, distance learning is a form of normal education that the instructors and learners locate in different places (1991).
Virtual school means that teaching and learning is not happened in a school that built by "brick and mortar". All student services and courses are conducted through Internet technology. It is totally different form traditional schools that instructors and learners may do not need to meet each other physically in the real life. (http://technologysource.org/extra/20/definition/1/)
In the US, there are 40,000 to 50,000 students in 37 states who are enrolled in virtual schools, according to the US Department of Education. Meanwhile, virtual schools have developed very well in other courtiers as well, such as Japan, France, and England.

I would like to talk about the e-learning and distance learning together because they are very close to together. And understanding the relationship between them is helpful to know the both concepts.
Simply to say, e- learning is a type of training, teaching, and learning that is delivered in a synchronous (real- time; instructor- led) or asynchronous (self -paced) format through internet. This is not like self - learning, because learners still need to follow the traditional instructor- led training (ILT) and computer based training (CBT).
As we all know that E - learning is always involved with any type of learning situation that is computer supported. There are many kinds of technologies that can be used in E -learning. At the same time, distance learning is related to E-learning. It is used to describe a learning type that takes place away from the actual traditional teaching and learning. E-learning have been growing with the computer for so many years, I mean when people tried to employ computer into education, e-learning began to be a part of teaching and learning. Comparing with the concept and practice of distance learning which predates the computer area by almost 100 years, the e - learning is kind of new in education area. The difference between E - learning and distance learning, I think, are about the “separating”. I mean in distance learning model instructors and students are separated physically, while e-learning is nothing to do with separating, sometimes e -learning can be part of classroom (virtual classroom or extension of classroom).

(http://technologysource.org/extra/20/definition/1/)
Virtual Schools: Trends and Issues, Tom Clark, 2001:
http://www.wested.org/online_pubs/virtualschools.pdf

Virtual schools, real concerns Amanda Paulson 2004
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0504/p11s02-legn.html