My neighbor has been homeschooling her girls, but this year one of the girls is going to an online school. From what she's told me, it sounds like a good program. Has anyone heard of online schools?
My neighbor has been homeschooling her girls, but this year one of the girls is going to an online school. From what she's told me, it sounds like a good program. Has anyone heard of online schools?
I can't remember the one that I found here but I decided against it. I think it is important for kids to be around other kids. The only way I would do that is if my child was having problems with other kids or the school was bad.
I have seen some ads for online schools, but I haven't had a chance to look into them yet. I live in a disgraceful school district so some form of home schooling is what I'll be doing for my daughter.
One of my grandsons is doing an online course with Bob Jones University Press and he loves it. He watches a virtual teacher in a classroom and he has the opportunity to ask questions and interact with the class. I don't understand all the details about it, but he thinks its great and my daughter-in-law says he is really learning from it. She is Latin and it was very difficult for her to teach him reading and English so this has worked very well for them.
My friend's daughter started online school this year. My friend is very impressed and her daughter loves it. From what she's told me, the teachers are great and there is excellent communication between them and her.
Online schools for college are very common, but I am unaware of the lower grades having this benefit in Michigan. I have heard of online high schools trying to start up, but a lot depends on the individual State and what they are willing to allow for credit.
Since I'm attending online college classes to finish my Bachelors and then move on to a Masters, I can give you first hand info about classes at that level.
Some schools use synchronous classes, some are asynchronous, and some do a combination of both.
Synchronous classes will have a virtual classroom and all students will need to be in attendance at the time the class is held or miss out on the discussion. My own experience with this has been with audio-only contact with the teacher since video requires a lot more connection speed than many students can muster.
Asynchronous classes will have a class forum much like this one. At my present school, attendance is determined based on forum activity and most teachers require 2 daily posts of 75+ words each in order to get credit for attending that day. Attendance is mandatory 5 of 7 days per week. My current class has homework assignments that are due on Friday, Monday and Wednesday. Two of these are public and open for student comment and one is private and submitted via a link to the teacher. In case anyone thinks that is a slow schedule, my last class had assignments due on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and a quiz every Wednesday. Assignments are usually papers with a minimum 500 to 1000 words, in APA format, and with full citations. Forum posts are also required to have full citations, student name in the title, etc.
When I graduate, I will have the same diploma that every student who attends that school on campus will get, there is no difference in the end paperwork. In fact, if I understand it right, I can pick the campus that I want the degree to be from (the college has 5 active campuses for students who need to study in a real classroom).
Online classes are available in a variety of topics, fun most of the time, convenient and accessible to almost everyone--but it is far from easy. If you have any trouble studying on your own, or comprehending textbook explanations, you are better off with on-campus classes. I think most High School kids would do better with a parent to help push them along and keep their motivation intact.
My best friend just finished her Doctorate with an online school. She is a PT and it worked out great for her because she was able to continue treating her patients full time and study from home in the evenings. It was two long, hectic years to get it done, but it would have been a lot worse if she had to worry about driving to and from evening classes on a campus. I think online schools allow more people to get different levels of degrees because they're just so much more flexible.
As for kids, I did see an ad on a website the other day for a K-12 virtual classroom, but I didn't look into it. I think it is an interesting concept though. As long as you network with other parents in your area who are doing the same thing and make sure the kids get together a couple times a week for social interaction, I think online schools could be a very good idea.
Yes, and some of them are very good. It's also a tangentital way for kids to learn about technology, computers, the Internet, and the like. Like everything else, some of them are better than others so you have to do some research. But, in general, it's a very positive thing. Better than homeschooling I think.
I think in the future more and more children will be attending online schools. But I agree with you about the importance of kids being around other kids, playing outdoors, etc.Originally Posted by Queenie
Yes, online schools for homeschooling are on the rise. You do have to check with your state to make sure they are accepted, but many families are no longer doing the teacher all by themselves; they are now using the online schools.
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