Distance Education

After reviewing a few of the sites listed at the bottom of the first page, as well as some listed on the second page of the assignment sheet, I have come up with a list of pros and cons to having virtual schools. I have not yet made up my mind whether the pros outweigh the cons, or vice versa, as I’ve not had enough time to really mull over it that much, but I can see why there are advocates and opposition for both.

The pros of the virtual schools that stood out the most to me were as follows: Students had many options to take classes that were interesting and relevant to them; students would probably have to develop a lot of personal responsibility to keep themselves on track, which is something they would find very helpful the farther they go in life; students work at their own pace, so if they need to spend a little more time on a certain topic/subject, they can; students are still kept accountable by having a minimum pace to maintain in order to stay in courses; using the computer so much gives students experience using technology; students could experience less test anxiety from taking exams online through these schools by using the tools offered them in preparation for them; and, students that are home schooling would be able to have access to teachers that are certified in their content areas and that might be able to offer better feedback on assignments than a parent would.

Some of the cons that I noticed were that, although some of the schools offer opportunities for social interaction, students would still not get as much interaction as they would in a regular classroom; these schools are only available to those that have internet access; the minimum pace could allow students to be lazy and put off homework/projects until they’ve all piled up at the end of the term; students won’t necessarily form as close of bonds with their teachers and classmates as those that are enrolled in an in-person high school; courses such as physical education are based, from what I can tell, almost entirely on the students’ word that they did an assignment and/or are working on becoming more healthy; and, in some cases, classes online can be rather pricey.

On one of the sites, there is a checklist of sorts for the prospective student to go through to see if he/she is ready to participate in online delivery. Some of the questions that it asks are: “Can I set a personal schedule and complete assigned work by the required dates?”, and, “Can I solve problems and work through difficulties independently?” The site also advises that if the student has problems or questions to ask someone, most likely one of the staff persons. In general, though, I would say that you would determine that a student is ready to do this type of learning by making sure that they have at least a basic knowledge of how to run the computer that he/she will be using, observing that the student has the attention span to sit at the computer for as long as is necessary to complete assignments of any kind, and provide the necessary tools for the student to stay organized so that he/she does not fall behind/forget assignments.

In order to teach in a virtual school, you would, of course, need to have a fair amount of knowledge about the technology that you will be using, teacher certification, a knowledge of how best to engage distance learning students, be able to pass a criminal background check, and knowledge in the content area of the course. The person would have to be willing to check and respond to emails and, most likely, phone calls on a fairly regular basis, and grade many assignments submitted online.