Virtual Schooling Part II

Students choose virtual school for a number of reasons: flexible schedules, Advanced Placement courses, convenience, loss of credit, etc. Virtual school can vary between full-time online courses and blended courses, partially face-to-face and partially online. Students are able to complete all of their required courses online or have the ability to select just one or two online courses.

One of my myths has been busted, maybe. I’m still a little skeptical. One of my thoughts was that virtual learning would hinder children’s social development. According to NACOL, students not only complete assignments but also are able to socialize with their peers and adults at home and in the community.  However, this is typically for students taking only one or two courses online and additional courses in a traditional classroom setting.

Another myth that I found interesting was that online courses are not only for gifted and talented students. According to NACOL, online schools have worked well with at-risk, English Learners and special needs students. Again, having worked with these learners, I would have to see it to believe it. I can understand if these students are supplementing their instruction via virtual learning instead of completing full-time online learning courses.

Virtual Schooling

Lately, I have heard and seen many advertisements for K-12 online schooling. Being a teacher in a traditional classroom setting, I have to say I don't know much about online learning. 

When I graduated high school, in 2001, we did not have any type of virtual school or online learning within my school or school district. As a high school student, the extent of using technology in the classroom was to create PowerPoint presentations or type a document into Microsoft Word. 

What I imagine online learning looks like is students logging into a program, similar to BlackBoard, watching instructional videos, completing various tasks, and completing quizzes/tests. It seems to be a more feasible option for higher education and high school students, but I having a hard time imagining early elementary students, kindergarten through second grade, completing these tasks on their own. I feel that parents would have to be much more involved in their child's education. The responsibility of checking whether or not a student is logging in, completing tasks, etc. will fall onto the parents. Furthermore, I think it would take an extremely independent and motivated child to have the initiative and the responsibility of completing the tasks. 

In my school district, we have adopted the "Blended Learning Model" in all of our kindergarten and first grade classrooms. This means, each of our classrooms are equipped with iPads, MacBook Airs and an interactive whiteboard. Teachers are required to teach to small groups of students for a majority of the day. The students who are not working with the teacher are completing work independently and logging into the various online programs we have. Students receive online instruction from these various programs for about 60 minutes each day.

My fear for these young students who receive instruction solely online, is that their social development will lack. We already see elementary age students will their hands and eyes glued to their iPhones, Xbox, etc. When will they have the opportunity to develop social skills, work collaboratively with their peers, learn to share, experience conflicts and conflict resolution?