Over the last three years I have been a graduate student in both a traditional and an online learning environment. Setting aside the subject matter, I can easily recognize which pedagogy was more meaningful for me. On several occasions I settled down in front of the computer with a glass of wine and my cell phone, determined to catch up with my friends. Needless to say I did not absorb much content on those Thursday evenings. When I began the Drake program, I must admit I was not too excited about the accountability that accompanies face-to-face instruction. Yet there is no doubt I have learned far more during this program. The interactions with my cohort members alone have vastly enhanced my learning. So then I started to ask myself, if as an adult I struggle to remain engaged in an online environment, how well can adolescents focus?
My interest in the concept of online public schools surfaced after Jerrid Kruse mentioned the movement during his presentation to our cohort. While I knew this was happening, I did comprehend how commonplace the trend was actually becoming. Honestly, my gut reaction was that will NEVER work. It isolates students, depends on technological savviness and access, and lacks accountability. Plus as a teacher I started to wonder, could I be replaced rather easily by such a system?
So I went in search of articles about online schooling and found a great article (which I tweeted) from The Wall Street Journal entitled "My Teacher Is an App." While the article seemed to possess an underlying opinion that this trend is detrimental to student learning, it did take the time to highlight a few benefits of the online approach. The most telling segment of the article was the collected data that revealed little to no support for improved student achievement. All of this makes me go back to the idea of technology being embedded in the content and instruction. Is online schooling really a means for enhancing learning? (My thought is possibly yes, for some driven students.) Or is it just another way to perpetuate the "technology movement" schools are expected to pursue?
The final line of the article expresses a desire to have a blended environment with both face-to-face and online instruction. If teachers are effectively implementing technology in their "traditional" classrooms, then don't we already have a balance? It seems the bigger challenge is to monitor implementation...
No thank you, online schools. The cyber classroom is not for me.
Until next time...
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