The Prevalence of YouTube in Education

According to a study by Pearson Education, YouTube is changing the way educators think as some school districts even have their own YouTube channels accessible for both teachers and students. According to this report, generation Z students, classified as being between the ages of 14 and 23, believe that YouTube is a bigger contributor to their education than textbooks. Education in America is shifting from more traditional methods of learning through text and lesson plans to more technological methods such as YouTube videos and other virtual platforms.

Global Research and Insights (2018). Beyond millennials: The next generation of learners. London, United Kingdom: Pearson. https://www.pearson.com/content/dam/one-dot-com/one-dot-com/global/Files/news/news-annoucements/2018/The-Next-Generation-of-Learners_final.pdf

Report Seeking Synchronicity Virtual Reference

A new membership report titled, Seeking Synchronicity distills more than five years of virtual reference (VR) research into a readable summary that features memorable quotes that vividly illustrate very specific and actionable suggestions. Taken from a multi-phase research project that included focus group interviews, surveys, transcript analysis, and phone interviews, with VR librarians, users, and non-users, these findings are meant to help practitioners develop and sustain VR services and systems. The report asserts that the "R" in "VR" needs to emphasize virtual "Relationships" as well as "Reference".

OCLC Research, in partnership with Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, 2011
http://www.oclc.org/us/en/reports/synchronicity/full.pdf

Online Schools turn to Hybrid Instruction

In just one decade, virtual learning has exploded, with two massive statewide full-time virtual schools in Florida and North Carolina, and more on the way. As online learning is taking off, new research is finding that it may not be the most effective way to teach children, and virtual companies have begun to see that a purely virtual approach has its limits. A key report put out by the U.S. Department of Education in September 2010 demonstrated that a blend of face-to-face instruction and online learning produced the greatest academic gains. Now, not only are traditional schools looking for more online options, but virtual schools in turn are adding bits of brick and mortar to their offerings. Once purely virtual schools—sometimes referred to as 'clicks'—are adding bricks in a variety of ways, Horn says. Some have added check-in centers where students can come by once a week to meet with peers and teachers. Others are moving to a type of hybrid model, with some online instruction with virtual teachers coupled with mentors and in-person teachers who rotate through a building, pulling students out for small group instruction, remediation, or acceleration.
BRIGID SCHULTE, Harvard Education Letter, 2011
http://www.hepg.org/hel/article/506

Virtual teaching and autism research

Virtual characters and digital tutors are helping children and adults develop advanced social and language skills that can be tough to learn via conventional approaches. Children with autism can develop advanced social skills by interacting with a "virtual child" that they might not develop by hanging out with real children or teachers.
Cassell, J. (2008). Virtual Humans: A Tool for the Study and Teaching of Language and Social Interaction. Paper presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, Boston.
http://articulab.northwestern.edu/