Bree Smyth

Oct. 27, 2003

SLM 521 MC

E-Learning

K12- Education for a lifetime. This website offers online learning for students who are being taught at home. The virtual academy offers a full online curriculum, but supplements that with additional learning materials such as books and audiovisuals. The Academy does have licensed teachers who do have contact “several times per year.” Students would spend the majority of the time on the computer or being taught by their parent, but occasionally they meet with groups of students for “outings.” A benefit to this kind of home schooling is that everything you need is included. All materials, computer, printer, curriculum, and basic supplies such as paper and crayons, are included. The computer skills needed are unclear; the younger students do not do as much direct interaction with it as their parents do. It is not clear exactly how Internet savvy you need to be in order for you to complete the program. Students are assessed using state standards, when applicable. Only a handful of states have this program, with the majority being only K-5. The program is expected to expand through 7^th grade and eventually through 12^th grade. Overall the program seems to correlate to state standards, but it doesn’t seem guided enough. Also, there is not much interaction with professional teachers. Since the materials are free, the program seems to have everything included. They even send you materials for science and art. I do think that student interaction is important, and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of that.

Class.com- This E-Learning website has a great technical support page. It lets you know what you need on your computer in order to access and use the website. The demo site was rather hard to use, I tried to look at several samples and had trouble accessing the pages. If you do not have high speed Internet, you will have trouble on this site. This would be a problem for many families trying to access this from home. Fortunately, the company does offer a CD on which a lot of the content is based. The courses that are offered are designed by secondary education teachers and “technology advanced Instructional Designers.” I can only assume that the designers have been trained in delivering E-Learning classes. It seems that this site would be primarily used for secondary education students to catch up or take accelerated classes. It does not look like it would be a home school program. Courses do not have any student interaction, and limited professional interaction. There does not seem to be any modifications available for students with 504 plans, but there are several courses designed for ELL students. This site does seem to be designed with distance learning in mind, but there is not enough student to student and student to teacher interaction. Also, there does not seem to be any variety in learning styles, most of the lessons look like they involve heavy reading silently and writing independently. For example, in the Driver’s Education course, there is a lot of reading and watching videos. This seems to be a course in which student to instructor interaction would be very valuable, as well as hands-on application.