Looking to go on vacation but not sure who you can leave the kids with while they attend school? If you're a Florida resident, the decision to finally take the ski trip you've been longing for might soon be an easier one, thanks to an innovative new program where students can earn a diploma from
local public schools entirely online.
A new state law requires school districts to create their
own full-time, virtual schools, or partner with other districts or virtual education providers to allow any student from kindergarten to twelfth grade to take classes from anywhere, so long as they have a computer and Internet access.
According to the Palm Beach Post, during the 2007-08 school year, more than 57,000
students took at least one Florida Virtual School course, though few students received an entire education online.
The benefits of an online education are varied. For starters, because students range in abilities and habits in a given class, online tools allow students to work at their own pace and at their chosen hours. Night owls (a.k.a. teenagers) can work through the night and sleep all day. Gifted students who digest a lesson quickly don't get stuck in the same lesson as those who digest the material more slowly. Students in rural areas can attend programs and classes previously unavailable or difficult to get to. Sick days are also less of a problem in an online world.
"This is a new world, and children have different
learning modalities," said Debra Johnson, principal of what will become
Palm Beach County's virtual school. "We need to be preparing ourselves
for not only the future, but we need to be addressing students' needs
now and providing different opportunities."
Opponents of virtual learning worry that a lack of face-to-face interaction between student and teacher, and between students could stunt emotional and cognitive development. There's also the issue of ensuring a student maintains good oversight of their learning and how to address financial quagmires such as whether to provide state funding for private school students taking public school classes.
There are also costs to consider. While some say having an online curriculum means not needing to build new buildings to keep up with population growth, others predict the costs of creating the online environment, including the additional teaching curriculums needed for the virtual world, eliminates any cost benefits from not having to construct traditional learning environments.
Perfecting the online system also comes at a high price, says Susan Patrick, president of the North American
Council for Online Learning. Patrick warns that it would be a mistake for all 67
Florida counties to create virtual schools from scratch, without sharing resources with one another and more importantly, with states like Minnesota that began offering virtual curriculums in 2002.
"There's a lot of planning money to reinvent the wheel that may not be necessary," Patrick told the Palm Beach Post.
Indeed. According to the Department of Education,
one-third (37 percent) of public school districts had students enrolled
in technology-based distance education courses. In 2004–05, there were an estimated 506,950 technology-based distance education course enrollments in public school districts. And while many parents of online student are thrilled that their children have access to more advanced learning tools and the best curriculums available, there are certainly kinks to be worked out.
Most noteworthy may be seen in Wisconsin schools, where a student can enroll in whatever school district's online program they choose. The state simply compensates each district $5,400 per student, per year.
But competition for students has incited a marketing war between school districts, and instead of spending money on education, districts are pouring money into direct mailing campaigns and advertisements to lure students into their programs. Is it money well spent? For the schools: yes. For the taxpayers? Not so much.
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