Winning with Online Education
posted by admin @ 8:00 AM
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Today’s students are not like any other in history. The amount of information they have available to them and the expectations for learning this knowledge can be over-whelming. Many of our schools and teachers are still trying to use 19th and 20th century materials and methods to teach our students. Therefore, it should not suprise us when we read that they are underperforming. 
We teach our students, test them, reteach them, try to motivate them, spend countless hours planning lessons and yet still they fall behind. What must we do to regain quality education for our students? How do we stop the downward slide?
The first thing we must do is to start to listen to what they are telling us and teach them with the tools and methods that they want to use. Technology is clearly what they are asking for.
Online education offers them current information rather then out-dated text books, interactive opportunities to solve problems with immediate feed-back rather then pencil and paper assignments that take days, sometimes weeks for results, direct and personalized contact with teachers, individualized attention to their problems, not the problems of others, and the ability to colaborate and network with not just those limited to a classroom but those within the world.
Using technology and educating online is not just for the few who might homeschool but can be blended with any school. Supplementing and supporting the public school would stop the downward slide in our student’s achievement. This fact is becoming more and more apparent as current research data on virtual learning and student achievement is being released.
Blending with Online Schools can also help those dwindling budgets schools face. They offer a cost effective alternative to how public schools currently teach. Think about eliminating the yearly cost of textbooks and support materials. Could the number of days in the brick and mortar school be shortened if online schooling was used? If so, what would that do to the cost of bussing? Or the maintanence and heating bills?
Imagine the possibilibies – Everybody wins.