A growing number of students are choosing to go to school online instead of physically in the classroom. They choose this for many reasons. Some have chosen so that they can work full time, some because of bullying and this is their safe way to go to school, and many other reasons also.
There are many positive reasons that virtual schools exist. First of all, it is a way to receive education at any time of the day and doesn’t block you into a schedule. Second, many public schools are offering as an alternative an online school so it is not very costly compared to sending a child to alternative schools and private schools. Third, kids especially tend to feel freer to communicate when they are not in front of a classroom. They are not worried about what others think and are able then to get the information they need to succeed. Another positive reason is if a child is behind in a class it is a way for them to get the extra assistance they need in order to get ahead.
Negative aspects of receiving and education online instead a physical classroom includes easy to put assignments off and not be motivated, also in the virtual classroom it is hard to build social skills. As much as kids do not like getting in front of a classroom, it is a skill that must be learned and cannot be done on a computer.
I have always thought that homeschooling and virtual schools remove too much of actual communication from the classroom and that children would have an easier chance of falling behind in class. It seems that I was very wrong. Many times when the child is online, the teacher is online and it is as though they are having class in a public school building (except they are not face to face). When the classes are run and the kids can get on at any time instead of a set time the teachers still mostly offer hours that would assist most students.
Clark, Tom. "Virtual Schools: Trends and Issues." CARET. 2005. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. http://caret.iste.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=studySummary&StudyID=430&words=virtual,school&from=searchSite. then click on .pdf file : http://www.wested.org/online_pubs/virtualschools.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment