It is important to consider the after effects of online school. Education through technology indeed break down some barriers, I think there is still space for online school to improve and provide better education quality for the future.
Are Some States Having Second Thoughts on Online Schools?
Almost every cyber-school in Ohio ranked below average on student academic growth in preliminary report published by the state last week. A Stanford study last year found cyber-students in Pennsylvania made “significantly smaller gains in reading and math” than peers in traditional public schools. And Tennessee’s first virtual school was slapped with the lowest possible score for student growth in recently released state rankings, putting it in the bottom 11 percent of schools.
Well it doesn't surprise me about these results. One thing to maybe think about to with this is the environment in which these kids are learning. In the TED talk the kids learned playing with the technology together. I would say that a young student may have a difficult time just sitting at a computer trying to learn alone. Are the students doing a program online or are they skyping in to a classroom? I think all of the variables have to be on the table for evaluation.
ReplyDeleteOnline learning has a lot of advantages, but there is much to be said for the real classroom. There is a video on the Kan Academy home page where he speaks at a TED talk. He had a response from a teacher who used one of his online tutorials for a math class - but she flipped the class where the Khan video was the homework and they did the homework together during class time. They "humanized the classroom" was what she said. I like that concept.
ReplyDelete