Journal 8

"Virtual Schooling" by Niki Davis and Dale Niederhauser
The presence of virtual schooling(VS)in K-12 education is growing at a rapid rate. This article reports that about 1/3 of public school districts had students enrolled in "distance education courses" during the 2002-03 school year (approximately 300,000 students). The projected population of online enrollment for the year 2006 is one million. The authors explain that students choose virtual schooling for many reasons including: to personalize schooling, as a response to NCLB, if the course was otherwise unavailable, to gain access to AP options or as a credit recovery option. One example of a benefit of VS is that students in Florida and Louisiana during hurricane Katrina were able to stay educated online. In fact in April 2006, Michigan became the first state to require VS experience for graduation.
The virtual school functions through e-mail, videoconferencing and a learning management system (like our webCT). There is a on-site facilitator at each school and an instructional technology coordinator to aid the teacher-student interaction. One example of a success story lies with former Iowa Teacher of the Year Gail Wortman. She developed an exemplary online course for anatomy and physiology students which included: complete webCT program, videoconferencing several times a week, self-study with the text and formal science labs at a regional location.
This article points out that educational teamwork is crucial for high quality VS. The three core roles are teacher, designer and VS site facilitator. The VS teacher must have great communication and classroom organization skills (as would be expected). They must also be able to use a wide variety of communication tools comfortably. It is also important that the teacher-student communication does not develop into overdependence. The administrators are responsible for allocation of resources, program coordination and maintenance. They are also responsible for recruitment and quality assurance of the courses. VS site facilitators take on the most important role of the program. They are considered both a site coordinator and coach and are crucial in relaying information. They are the advocates for the VS system.

1. What do I think about virtual schooling in general? I think it's a good option in cases where students are able to take courses not available to them (the article mentioned science) but I certainly don't think it should be a total replacement of regular schooling. Kids learn important social lessons in school as well and I don't think they should be isolated from others in their peer groups.
2. Would I like to be a VS teacher? At this point I wouldn't feel comfortable being a VS teacher. Not only because of my technology skill level but also because I place great importance on one-to-one, face-to-face interaction.