• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, February 6, 2012

Ask a question in a search query on an engine, and if Google and Bing engineers have their way, the perfect answer serves up within milliseconds. Google's pledge to education spans from an online science fair for kids, to programs encouraging women to become engineers, to offering desk space in a new office called Campus to entrepreneurs hoping to produce the next Facebook or Google.

Yes, Google fosters learning. "Googlers are the types who never really leave the classroom," Jordan Lloyd Bookey, head of global K-12 education outreach at Google, wrote in a recent blog post. Perhaps Mr. Floyd, an Edison High School teacher in Huntington Beach, Calif., will help produce some of those Googlers. He took his classroom mobile this year after posting class lectures on YouTube, asking students to go online to review the content before coming to class to discuss and take quizzes.

Floyd's first online high school lecture for this year highlights post-World War II and Soviet relations, followed by The Russian Revolution. Aside from preparing the kids for college, since many higher-education schools post class studies online, the ability to take the classroom lecture mobile should eliminate old-time excuses such as "I forgot the lecture material at school," or even "I couldn't make it to class because I was sick."

Online learning also gives high school students like Crystal Laren the opportunity to view videos multiple times, if needed, from home or traveling, or on their iPhone or tablet while sitting on the beach enjoying a beautiful Southern California winter day similar to the one we had last weekend. One big problem -- the kids have to become very disciplined in keeping up with their studies, but bringing the classroom to the kids may help drive adoption and promote curiosity, which could encourage online searches.

It's the "cool factor." Floyd's strategy gives kids the opportunity to research topics online based on content in the video through searches or links embedded to the YouTube post. Those pre-approved links could provide more than information on important topics discussed in his history lectures. Companies such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble, which sell books on these topics, could provide sponsorships to help classrooms pay for the essentials like paper and books because taxpayer money earmarked for supplies just doesn't cut it.

The parents' workplace could step up to sponsor Floyd's YouTube page -- or even local businesses, similar to the way high school sports gets sponsors for football or other athletic events. The Huntington Beach Unified School district gets a failing grade when it comes to providing students with essential classroom materials, such as paper and books.