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
2 Comments:
Your article was very enlightening. I never considered the ability students have to retake an assessment until they are fully prepared for their exam. It enables the teacher also to post many practice quizzes to enable that. I agree that for someone to enroll in a course that is virtual, they need to be able to work independently, and not be constantly watched. So many things can be added online to increase the understanding of the lesson like audio presentations, as you stated. Good Job!!
virtual schooling is a great idea. Especially with the fact that students can take control of their own learning from the comforts of home!
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home