Chapter 6: Fostering Online Learning with Educational Websites and Apps.

What are the advantages & complexities of online learning and virtual schools?

Students and families who enjoy the idea of anytime, anywhere learning are drawn to online schooling. Many students like the freedom from a fixed school schedule that online learning provides. They can also do the work at their own pace thus eliminating pressure to hurry and get an assignment done. Online learning also has the ability to provide learning to anyone from a home schooled student to a student with a medical condition. Another advantage of online learning  and virtual school is that it is less expensive. School who are are facing financial constraints benefit from online schooling because there are fewer teachers which means less people to pay and for the most part online teachers get paid a lower salary compared to their colleagues who are physically present in a classroom.

Critics though say that online schools are very isolating in nature and that because of this students have less social interaction, have fewer opportunities to learn collectively, and receive less individualized attention from their teachers. The lack of full time educators doesn't help. Critics also say that students in online schools are not preforming well on standardized tests. A study from Stanford University found that students in virtual schools and charter schools preformed significantly below their public school counter parts (Center for Research on Education Outcomes, 2009).

Personally I am not a big fan of complete online schooling, especially if you are able to go to a regular school, whether it be public, private or what ever it may be. I took an online health class in high school and I didn't like it. I don't learn if I'm not face to face with a teacher.


**Chapter 6 talked about online learning and different websites and tools to help teachers engage students in online learning. Bookmarks are a great way to organize sites that one may find useful in the classroom or even outside the classroom. I'm sure that we have all bookmarked a website we've found interesting on our computer, but the only time we can access it is when we are on our computer. So if you wanted to show your fellow colleagues a site you found that has great vocabulary activities you couldn't unless you had your own computer with you. Social bookmarking allows you to bookmark your websites but instead of being limited to one computer you can now access your websites from any device. I found both information alerts and RSS feeds to be pretty cool ideas. An information alert is a notice letting you know that new information about a certain topic has just come available in an electronic format. Google has information alerts called Google Alerts and they're free to anyone with a Google account. RSS feeds are somewhat simliar to information alerts except that RSS feeds give subscribers access via email to news and information. Webquests, virtual field trips, and video conferencing are also great tools to use in the classroom. Webquests are inquiry driven activities that are designed and guided by teachers. Students in a webquest move from one web resource to another to gather and learn about a topic. Virtual field trips allow students to visit other places around the world without ever leaving the classroom. Google Earth has an impressive collection of virtual field trips. Like virtual trips, videoconferencing allows students access to places and people they wouldn't otherwise be able to meet or see. Online learning and virtual school have come about like never before. In the year 2000 online learning had a mere 45,000 students to more than four million in the year 2011 (Staker, 2011). As of 2010 27 states including the District of Columbia had full time virtual school serving students statewide, with Florida's Virtual School being the largest. As seen in the above question, there is much debate about the pros and con's of online learning. 

 Google earth picture of the midsection of Florida.