Week 10: Virtual Schooling/Distance Education

Virtual school and distance education I think are tricky subjects to tackle.  I speak from personal experience when I say I know the pros and cons of both.  I took two online distance learning courses to fulfill general college requirements at UVA.  While we're looking at VS/DE for younger students, I will briefly tell about some of my own experiences.  

I took these courses because they were general classes that just needed to be fulfilled.  They were much cheaper than taking summer courses at UVA and as they came off the pre-approved list, there was no worry about the credits transferring and the grades would not be factored into my overall gpa either.  They were also convenient as all I needed was a computer and some time to complete my assignments.  I was able to work full time and take these courses at the same time without a problem.  If you take a summer course at UVA, four hours straight in the middle of the day everyday of the week is taken up by that class.  

Those are some of the benefits of VS/DE at the college level.  I'm sure some of those are similar for certain options of VS/DE in primary and secondary school as well.  There were some cons, though.  I missed having the information presented to me via lecture or (dare I say?) powerpoint.  There's something nice about being to hear the information from someone else rather than only reading it to yourself out of a book.  It was also difficult to communicate with the teachers at times.  Technology has a wonderful way of failing me, so posting to discussion boards did not always happen when it should have happened.  At last (for now), I'm a huge procrastinator, so I'd be faced with the dilemma of having to teach myself a chapter and completing the work on it all within one evening.  Needless to say I stressed myself out more than usual.  At least when you attend a lecture you're able to absorb some of the information without needing to do the reading.  Overall, I did fine and fulfilled the necessary requirements, but sometimes the frustration was so high that I wondered if it was worth it.

With other forms of VS/DE I really like the aspect of working with schools in other places directly or helping keep kids on track in their studies when they are unable to attend school.  In some cases where homeschooling may have been necessary, I think VS can take some stress off parents who aren't sure how to teach their homebound kids or don't have the ability to not work so that they can.  Also, with VS, students are able to work when they have the time and still receive feedback from their teachers.  Their grades are logged so if they are able to, they can join right back in at the school when the time comes.  

Working with schools in other locations has so many possibilities it's hard to name them all.  Basically, the value in learning about a place from the people who live there and experience it on a daily basis is incredible.  Students also relate well to other students and want to make friends with new people in new places, so the novelty and excitement is there in these types of projects.  Also, I believe that these projects can really allow kids to take ownership of their work and what they are doing which is also important in teaching.  Kids can connect with other schools in different places or if you have students from around the world, they can head up the project on a specific country and feel proud of from where they come.  The benefits really are there if technology is used appropriately and consistently.