Another item from my home and native land… This one taken from the NACOL forums.
Virtual schooling a hit in real world
Teachers meet here this week
Naoibh O’Connor, Vancouver Courier
Published: Wednesday, April 23, 2008Only a few years ago, it was relatively unknown. Now online learning has become the vehicle of choice for thousands of B.C. students.
Teachers from across the province meet in Vancouver this week for a conference devoted to online learning as the growth continues. Enrolment province-wide climbed from 17,000 students in 2006 to 33,000 students in 2007, according to Ministry of Education statistics.
Gordon Milne, president of the Virtual School Society, which is hosting the conference, witnessed much of that growth. He’s a retired superintendent from the Nechako Lake school district, which launched the first online school, based in Vanderhoof, called EBUS, 17 years ago.
The growth has been phenomenal. I remember we started with a half-dozen kids that many years ago and it’s grown in leaps and bounds,” Milne said. “We were the only school district that provided online learning for many years and now other schools have leapt in and begun to offer it as well.”
The three-day Vancouver forum, from April 22 to the 24, focuses on the latest digital tools and strategies to teach the Internet-savvy generation.
Milne said students register in courses for various reasons. Some are elite athletes trying to fit courses into their schedules, others have part-time jobs they’re working around or they can’t fit a course into their regular schedule, while still others prefer learning via computers.
“Some parents just choose to have their children educated at home and have withdrawn them from the regular public education system and are using online learning to support their kids’ learning,” Milne added.
The Virtual School Society, an independent society funded by the provincial government, supports online schools by helping with software and hardware and through leadership.
It developed an educational portal called LearnNow B.C. Fifty-two virtual schools across the province–including two in Vancouver through the Vancouver Learning Network, which offers elementary and secondary programs–have courses registered through LearnNow B.C.
Flexibility is the key to virtual schooling’s appeal and rapid growth, according to Milne.
Students can participate in lessons available on live video feeds at prescribed times or they can access archived lessons at any time.
Technology is also easier to use and students are more Internet savvy than in previous generations. Online learning was also largely unknown three or four years ago, Milne pointed out, which explains the spike in interest in recent years.
“It wasn’t widely publicized. LearnNow B.C. has provided an opportunity for kids to take a look at what every virtual school in the province is offering and there’s a real variety there in how those courses are presented so kids can pick what interests them,” he explained. “Some kids have a definite interest and aptitude when it comes to learning in that way. Other kids have no interest–it’s the last way they would want to learn. They want to be in a traditional bricks and mortar classroom. Some kids like to do a little online, a little face-to-face. There’s a nice combination of blended programs around our province.”
Despite virtual learning’s rapid growth, Milne maintains it doesn’t spell the end of traditional schooling. “I can’t envision that. I wouldn’t want to even consider that. I just think that traditional face-to-face work with kids is so important for many kids–these connections that are made are so powerful I wouldn’t even want to think about that.”
