Virtual School: Coming to a Summer School Near You

Imagine taking a summer school class while visiting relatives in China for the summer or logging on to your laptop at the beach to take a quiz for your online eleventh grade sciene class. How cool would that be? Well in this age of increasingly popular virtual school this is a reality not a possability. The article, "Summer School Goes to the Beach" talks about the benefits of taking summer school classes online. Those who struggle with the content presented during the normal academic year find the format for summer school much easier. In the text it states that, "Most students finish with A's and B'c, because teachers don't let them go through with D's." Students are also able to retake assements or work through several practice assements until they are ready to be tested. On the other hand, the article does stress that parents and should consider if their child is able to work idependently with nobody to breathe down the child's neck to complete an assignment.

Virtual classrooms are a form of distance education which is "any instructional situation in which learners are seperated in time or space from the point origination, charecterized by limited access to the teacher and other learners." Students complete coursework at their own time and their own pace, and the teacher acts more as a facilitator than the core instructional guide. Students are able to use a number of technological devices to complete assignments. They are more likely to watch audio presentations online or view podcasts. Navigating an online course requires students to understand how to use different aspects of the computer. Therefore, apart from mastering the content area students are also working towards mastering the use of the computer.

Virtual schooling is a great pacing tool. Firstly, students can complete assignments at the time of day that they are best able to focus. Instead of listening to a lecture after lunch time when they are least focus and less likely to pay attention and absorb knowledge they can view a podcasted lecture online at three o'clock in the afternoon when they are most alert. Secondly, the course caters to the higher and lower level learners. Students are able to complete assignments at their own pace, and those that are mastering the subject content quickly can work ahead to the next module in the same weeK. Slower level learners can take the whole week to complete one module, and they are not pressured to get something because the faster paced learners need to move on.


It would be good to do a comparison study to see if asyncronous education is more effective than syncronous education. How does asyncronous classrooms fair to ones that are teacher centered? Does it help learners to be able to work on mastering content in an online class at their own pace?

If you would like to read the article "Summer School Goes to the Beach" follow the link:http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.fgcu.edu/ehost/detail?vid=21&hid=106&sid=53275d82-297c-44e9-b096-62b2ee13ea68%40sessionmgr107

No Best Kept Secret

Do you want to hear a secret? Well it is not really a secret. In fact, it is common knowledge, and it is easily accessible to the public. The article "Animate Learning with Digital Video" talks about video streaming, and how it is a great educational tool that is easyily accessible to the public. Educators and learners can access educational videos for free or with a subscription from a number of educational video on demand sources. In the article it states, "Accomponied by instructional materials, these databases are searchable by keyword, subject area, or grade level, and curriculum standards." Such video sources include Discovery Education, Classroom Content Click, and Brain Pop.


Video Streaming is an aspect of projected visuals. Projected visuals are defined as, "media formats in which still images are projected onto a screen." The videos provide digital images in the form of online videos. For instance, in a literature class students can view a DVD version of a book that they have just completed. The teacher stops the video for a moment and keeps the images on the monitor for discussion in class. This form of teaching style offers more concrete experiences. Learners can see pictures of the places or ideas that are presented. The ideas are put in to action, and they get a visual picture of what they are learning.


Video streaming provides a number of benefits to learners. Watching videos brings a subject to life. In the article it states videos "Bring Shakespeare to life or animates the working of the human circulatory system." Actually viewing a subject in action makes the experience more concrete for learners. Students are shown to do a frog disection. Furthermore, students can make their own educational videos and upload them to the interent. There are many public sites that allow one to upload videos for free. Students can take what they have learned, and they can put it into a video. In turn, students are making the learning experiences meaningful to them, and they are learning how to better naviagte technology.


I feel that more research is needed to be done on how watching videos increases knowledge. Does watching an education video help students to retain facts and ideas better than reading inormation in a book or hearing a lecture?

If you would like to read the article "Animate Learning with Digital Video" follow this link: http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.fgcu.edu/ehost/detail?vid=6&hid=103&sid=a4e24b3e-e298-4831-8e84-7a62e8ea8b87%40sessionmgr106

Podcasts: Making Education Fun!

Here's a novel idea having fun with your students! That's right education can be more than textbook lectures and discipinary action. It can be about having fun, and podcasts can make the learning process and fresh and fun one. In the article "Sound of! The Possibilities of Podcasting" talks about what podcasting is, and how it can be used. In the article, it says that "a podcast is any audio recording that is linked to the web, that can be downloaded to a personal MP3 player". They can be used in any content areas for instruction and review, and they can be used to asses what students have learned. For instance, in the article a group of second graders did a project on "Holiday's around the world" using podcasts. The article talkes about how easy podcasts can be. All you need is a microphone and some inexpensive technology.



Podcasts can be used as apart of learning centers. Learning centers are defined as "a self-contained enviroment designed to promote individual or small group learning focused on a particular topic." Students can work together in a hands on group activity to create a podcast discussing the solar system, or they can renact a scene from Hamlet. Podcasts can also be used by teachers to create lectures that students can review outside of the classroom. This can help students review for tests, and those students that are absent will not fall behind in material being learned. They can view it at home on their computer.


I feel that podcasts are beneficial to learning. Podcasts are great for extending learning outside the classroom. In the article it states, "Podcasts can also reach a much larger audience outside the boundaries of the ordinary school day." Teachers can use podcasts to stimulate lectures that they would not ordinaryily be able to give in being absent from school. Also, podcasts can reach students who missed a day's lecture. Allowing the students to create podcasts offers invaluable learning experiences. It benifits students in two ways. First, it allows learners to work with technology making them more technologically proficient. Secondly, podcasts allow students to practice public speaking skills in recording the podcasts. They work on rate, volume, and diction three important aspects in good public speaking. It also helps make learners more confident public speakers.


More research in the success rate of podcasts in classrooms is needed. Also, it is important to learn if the podcasts are more distracting than helpful. Do students focus more on the recording part than the actual content that they need to incorporate in the podcast?

If you would like to read the article "Sound of! The possibilities of podcasting follow this link:http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.fgcu.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=7&hid=117&sid=b0c46210-c894-4958-b8c2-1af7f58188d0%40sessionmgr102