A recent article in The New York Times notes that online schooling is rapidly becoming the alternative to the traditional classroom schooling in some states. Wisconsin and Florida have a large number of school-aged children being educated by virtual public schools. There are two types of virtual schools. One type of virtual school is led and financed by the state, but it does not offer students a diploma. Instead it offers courses that complement regular class work at a traditional school. This virtual school is geared towards middle and high school students. The other virtual school is a full-time online charter school. The schools are publicly financed and are geared toward elementary and middle school students.
With virtual schooling, students would often download assignments and communicate with their certified teacher sporadically via Internet. These students are not considered “home-schoolers” because the online schools are financed by taxpayers and subject to federal testing requirements. The students are legally public school students.
Parents and some educators support virtual schools because the students can work at their own pace and they can receive an education without physically being present in the classroom. However, the article mentioned that virtual schools could create risk concerning the quality of the students’ education. Another downfall is that money is taken from school districts to support the virtual school in that town.
I would rather see high school students participate in online school because the majority of colleges in the United States conduct online courses. The online school will prepare them for online courses if they attend college. As for the elementary and middle school students, it is not a good idea to remove them from the classroom at such a young age. They will miss out on the advantages of a formal education if they participate in online schooling. A few things they will lose are the interaction with other classmates and the personal connection and support from a classroom teacher.
I provided a link to the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/education/01virtual.html
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2 comments:
I'm not sure how I feel about distance learning. I tried to take an online course in high school, but I had to drop it because I had no time to do the work. Also, I don't think there's a need for high schoolers to be learning online.
Online graduate programs are fantastic because you can work full time (doing something REAL), while getting your Master's degree.
This was a realy good post.
Online learning? What a great topic to discuss!
I agree with Susan. Although I know some high schools are going towards using online or distance education (DE), I can see the negative aspects of this type of learning on this level. I believe adolescents need both the social and educational benefits of high school.
On the other hand, DE can help common high school educational problems such as overcrowding and homebound instruction. Plus, it can offer alternatives for special needs students or students who require special instruction.
And the use of DE on the graduate level is just amazing. But that is a whole other topic...
Back to high school... take a look at this site for the virtual school in Florida
http://www.flvs.net/
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