Nov 23 2008
On the face of it, there are two more issues that need to be set in place to complete the foundation of this discussion:
1. Online learning for professional development;
2. The applicablility of online learning for the community-at-large.
After these issues are reflected upon, we can begin to build our ’school for lifelong learners’.
Nov 16 2008
Should we enrol our students in schools like Virtual High School (VHS) – http://www.govhs.org ?
I have been both a teacher and student in online learning milieus. I have launched experiences, as teacher, individually online in Moodle (on a 3rd party site) and other ventures, as well. I am today going to focus on VHS.
Virtual High School is well into its second decade of existence. They offer well over 300 courses and have been exceeding over four thousand students per semester for the last two years. I think it is an ideal addition to almost any school, but especially for smaller schools. If you have fifty seats per year it is well within the realm of possibility that your student s will take fifty DIFFERENT courses in the course of a school year-Think of how that broadens horizons.
The school has four membership options, as copied from the VHS site as follows:
There are several considerations that should taken into account:
In the best of all possible circumstances, in my opinion, a school or district would have the same person be the Site Coordinator and teacher. VHS would be a regularly scheduled class, with independent study allowed on a case-by-case basis.
The teacher would develop an additional curriculum component or use the services of VHS to extend the class for the full school semester. VHS offers class fifteen consecutive weeks with NO BREAKS, so the students are at loose ends if nothing else follows the completion of that course.
This is the matrix for a small school in Washington state, except that the teacher teaches two online classes that provide the students with a hundred seats in VHS per year in any course in which they may enrol. This is a full-time position – two classes a day for the students in her school, two periods a day for her to teach her online students and one period for her coordinator and admin work.
On the other hand, if the Site Coordinator’s duties and teacher’s responsibility can be a part of the school day by reducing the face-to-face responsibilities, that ongoing cost would be negligible.
Nov 16 2008
Should successful completion of an online course be a graduation requirement?
This is a difficult call to make.
I feel it should be a requirement for a high school diploma and for an associate’s and bachelor’s degrees for students in our country. And, just as firmly, I believe that there should be suspensions or modifications allowed to the requirement, as well.
I have taught online for more than five years, completed a master’s online, and have continued to take courses on a pay-as-I-go basis ever since. I have explored adding moodle to my face-to-face courses. I have looked at several other options including commercial options (of which I have taken advantage).
Obviously, my skillset and learning styles make online learning something that is workable, desirable even, for me. We are really in the first few seconds, metaphorically speaking, of the Digital Age. If we can manage to survive the current economic and environmental crises intact, we will continue to rocket into this the Digital Age that has only two other events in history of comparable impact. If we are going to become a community of life-long learners; If we’re going to leave no child behind; We are going to do it by embracing the tools, and the lives we fashion with these tools.
Online learning is one of these tools.
Nov 16 2008
Is online learning worthwhile? Why? Why not?
Since teaching is my third career, I’m a rather a newbie at this. The first time I had heard the phrase ‘life-long learner’ in context was six years ago. It sound so bright and exciting and I could understand the lack of enthusiasm on the part of my colleagues who had been teachers for a while.
It wasn’t long until I realized that every district or school mission statement I came across contained that phrase. For my colleagues it had become a cliche. Worse, it was an empty cliche – No one ever explored or discussed what this meant and how it would be facilitated.
One of the paths that can be provided for people to be life-long learners is through online learning: Joining classes on the World Wide Web.
There are several places a prospective online learner can go to read enumerations and discussions of the pros and cons of online learning including:
http://www.edu-center.org/distance-learning-pros-cons.htm
http://www.learn-source.com/schools/pro_con_online.html
http://www.elearners.com/resources/elearning-faq5.asp
If you are out of school-either high school or college-online learning should be an option in continuing your own personal growtth and development.
Nov 02 2008
This is the first of several opportunities to consider online education.
Online learning is growing by leaps and bounds.
I am a teacher for Virtual High School (VHS), the longest-lived virtual school in the United States. I think that virtual learning as in a virtual ‘classroom’ is a rewarding experience for my students. Michigan now requires passing an online course as a graduation requirement. Various school districts and schools around the country either have or are contemplating doing the same.
Is online learning worthwhile? Why?
Do you think online learning should be a graduation requirement?
Should we enrol our students in schools like VHS?
Should states step up and build statewide, online schools?
How will this education be funded, if it’s not on the local level?
