Christina Wood author of the article, Highschool.com: The Virtual Classroom Redefines Education, discusses the increasing popularity of virtual schools. Virtual schooling allows students to trade in the typical classroom setting for text messaging. The origin of virtual schooling can be traced back to 1996 when the Concord Consortium and Hudson Public Schools, both in Massachusetts, partnered and created VHS, the virtual high school project. Their goal was to, “pool teaching resources and increase course offerings to high schools”. Many states, including Florida have followed suit to create VHS programs of their own to offer virtual courses. According to this article, in 2002-03 nearly 300,000 high schoolers attended online classes. Virtual schools give students the chance to take advanced placement classes or classes not offered at their school online. The results of these classes are shown in the students to who achieve things they thought where impossible. One example of the positive benefits of virtual classrooms is demonstrated by online computer-science courses which helped Daniel Spangenberger, of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, get accepted into Carnegie Mellon University -- and earn a scholarship to pay for it. "Those courses expanded my field of study and my knowledge in areas that my small high school couldn't," he explains. "There was no way I would have been able to start as a sophomore in my computer-science study at Carnegie Mellon without those classes." In addition to high schools, the National Education Technology Plan released by the U.S. Department of Education in January states that, “Approximately twenty-five percent of K-12 public schools offer some form of virtual instruction in the classroom”. Virtual classrooms are also becoming increasingly popular in rural areas.
There are many different types of technologies used in a virtual classroom. Technologies used include digital whiteboards, animations, labs, threaded discussion forums, group projects, blogs and e-mails. The use of technology often allows the interaction to occur faster than in a typical classroom. Also, virtual classrooms provide the opportunity for immediate feedback.
Students enjoy the benefits that virtual classrooms have to offer such as:
* Larger selection of course offerings, including advanced courses.
* Freedom to complete work when they decide to.
* Immediate feedback.
* Freedom of expression for all students.
* Interactions with students throughout the world.
* Flexibility to participate in extracurricular activities or jobs.
Although virtual classrooms are poplar, they still have some problems. One problem is underfunding. Many classrooms are physically crumbling down because of the lack of government funding. Another issue is the difficulty in recruiting principal and teachers. Additionally, the quality and training of teachers create problems in creating quality courses. Student work ethic is another issue that is being explored. According to Matt Wicks, director of virtual learning at Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, “Students must be willing to take responsibility for their own learning”.
Virtual classrooms provide a great tool in the field of education. This article reports that within the next ten years blended learning, that is some online and some in the classroom, will likely become the norm. Students will participate in virtual classrooms to supplement in class learning. It is important to remember, as this article points out that, “Schools are essential institutions in the community. Schools play a tremendous role in socialization and in the community”.
< http://www.edutopia.org/high-school-dot-com>
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5 comments:
This article described VHS. It is helpful for advanced placement learning. For example, a student that is in high school and wants to get ahead for college can take online courses to do that. In my opinion, I think online courses are helpful but I dont want them to go too far because I think class should be held in a traditional classroom. I enjoyed the last sentence. "Schools are essential institutions in the community. Schools play a tremendous role in socialization and in the community”.
Nice work team three. I liked how you listed the specific benefits that virtual classrooms have to offer. For example, larger selection of course offerings, immediate feedback, and freedom for expression for all students. I really think immediate feedback is a huge benefit because it lets the students know what they can improve on right away. Good job team.
I used to live near Berkeley Springs, WV and it is far from larger cities where high schools might have more technology resources. The high school computer science student who started as a sophomore at Carnegie Mellon is a good example of the benefits of virtual classrooms.
I did not know so many students actually took virtual classes and I did not know that they were offered in all grade levels. I thought mainly colleges used virtual classrooms. This article also mentioned that the online course does not have to be offered by the school that the student attends but the course still counts such as the student who enrolled in college as a sophomore. This article pointed out a lot of useful information and told me some things that I did not know.
All of the information your team provided was great. I really enjoyed reading it, however maybe consider in the future breaking up your body into paragraphs, or adding pictures. This breaks up the text and keeps the eyes moving, and therefore the reader interested.
But you all are doing great with the information you provided! Good job!
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