Submitted by: Carla Ramdat
Fording, Laura (March , 2004). Newsweek:
Education, 21st Century-Style: Virtual classrooms,
1-3. Retrieved October 11, 2004, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4633126/print/1/displaymode/1098
This article was discussing virtual classrooms and
how they are gaining popularity. This
article opened with sharing the views of virtual education from Virtual High
School CEO, Liz Pape. She shared the fact that her organization offers high
school students great content and with the design of how this program is
implemented, a chance for virtual education students to meet and interact with
people from around that world. It was mentioned how enrollment has grown from
710 – 5,000 within a 7 year span.
The author of this article, Laura Fording,
interviewed the director of the US Department of Education’s Office of
Technology, Susan Patrick. Ms. Patrick shared her views regarding this form of
education and on how this has increased
enrollment of students. She shared that this form of education has reached
students who have trouble in traditional classroom settings because of the 1-1
interaction. It was mentioned that virtual classroom settings would be great
opportunities for students in rural areas to take classes not offered in their
town. Ms.Patrick discussed how virtual education can meet the needs of
elementary students also and how it can be differentiated to meet students’
individual needs. Susan Patrick said
that one of the biggest benefits of this form of education is that students
have access to teachers trained in the best schools if they don’t have access
to this in their areas. Another benefit mentioned is that discussion groups
were a way in which the teachers and students could interact with all comments
and how they are always engaged in e-mail and instant messaging conversations
causing teacher-student interactions frequently.
Last, the director, shared how they are
looking at ways they can use technology to transform education rather than
automating the old ways of learning since virtual education offers so many more
opportunities. One case of an opportunity this form of education offers is that
it has classes where some schools may have struggled with finding teachers to
fill, such as, language classes.
I think this is a wonderful, innovative method of teaching, which will capture the interest of all types of learners. It is an isolated method but if it can keep a student involved, focused and reach a student's interest, then I think it's wonderful. I think online learning will meet the needs of all types of learning styles including students with leaning disabilities on up to the highly capable students. Students with ADD or the ones who are easily distracted in a traditional classroom setting could be focused on their lessons while working online. Also, if there are students who are too shy to speak or express themselves in a traditional class setting, they would have the opportunity to express their opinion and information more freely without that feeling of being nervous in a large group setting. This method could boost their confidence level and self-esteem.
As Susan Patrick stated in this article
about how advantageous this form of education is for reaching
students in rural school settings whose schools may not offer AP or
other classes they may want to take, I reiterate that fact that this
is a great opportunity for them to take advantage of and get that chance
he or she may not have had.
The drawbacks I do see to virtual education is that this should be used as a supplement to a curriculum since the face-to-face interactions are so important to a student’s intellectual development. Because of this, I would not vote for this to be the only source of education available.