Susan Waddell has heard all the fears about online education.

How can students socialize with classmates and teachers if they’re at home taking all their courses on the computer?

Won’t online learning turn them into introverted teenagers who won’t be able to relate with ”normal” people once they get to college or find a job?

Aren’t students going to miss out on what every education expert says is the key component of the high school experience – experiencing high school?

Even Bend-La Pine School board members this week voiced concern about a proposed online charter high school, wondering if it would detract from creating a well-rounded student.

But that just isn’t the case, said Waddell, director of the Eugene-based COOLSchool online learning center.

”My experience has been that none of those concerns have manifested into reality,” she said.

School board members will decide next month whether to approve plans for Bend-La Pine Online, a charter school in which students would take courses entirely via computer.

About 60 courses would be available to students in a variety of electives and core subjects such as English, math and geography.

E-learning is becoming more and more popular, but officials say it won’t soon replace a traditional high school or eliminate the high school experience for students.

”It will not replace the face-to-face world at school,” Waddell said. ”It will only enhance it and increase a student’s ability to work forward to the future.”

Larry Fenili, the Bend-La Pine curriculum coordinator who has been working with Waddell and COOLSchool to develop BLP Online, has agreed, saying most students won’t want to take their entire curriculum online.

Of the state’s roughly 160,000 high school students, only about 1,700 are taking online courses, Waddell said. Very few are taking full loads online.

Waddell said high schoolers are a social group and very few are interested in spending their entire day at home, alone, taking courses on their computer.

”They’re very much in the minority, but some do,” she said. ”They tend to be home schooled kids who are pretty much not socializing in the public school setting anyway.”

Other students who take full loads online aren’t the type of students who enjoy the socialization aspect of high school, officials have said.

A student who chooses to take a full load online would still have access to all the clubs, sports and activities offered at his or her home school.

Lisa Howe, whose 14-year-old son, Stephen, took an online Latin course last year, said seeing her son taking a class or two online doesn’t worry her that he’s not being socialized.

”Socialization occurs every day in more places than a classroom at a high school,” she said. ”He takes piano lessons, he’s involved in a youth group at church and a chess club at school. There are a gazillion other places for socialization.”

The students themselves say they want to experience everything high school has to offer, which means showing up at school every day. Also, there still are classes better suited for a classroom.

”I wouldn’t want to take all online courses. I would like to have classes at school too,” said Stephen, now a 14-year-old Summit High freshman. ”I think there’s some subjects that are best taught at school and some you can do online.”

He said he would take math courses at school because it’s important to have the teacher there to answer questions and give immediate help.

Natalie Reeves and Josh Adams, juniors at La Pine High School who are currently taking online courses through COOLSchool, agree.

”I don’t think I’d want to take something like math online,” Josh said. ”I’m on varsity track, pole vault, junior class president – I have to stay in school. I wouldn’t ever want to stay at home. I need the interaction.”

Online schools force interaction, Fenili and Waddell said.

Students must periodically meet face-to-face with mentors and school counselors to make sure they’re on the right track, participate in group activities and take proctored tests.

And some online courses require students to socialize with other online students by having them to do projects together via computer.

”I do believe it’s a big part of the future,” Waddell said. ”I wholeheartedly believe it will not replace face-to-face instruction.”

Ted Taylor can be reached at 541-383-0375 or ttaylor@bendbulletin.com.