This is a guest entry written by Adrienne Carlson, who regularly writes on the topic of engineering degree online.
It’s something of an anomaly that while adult online education has taken off like a rocket, its K-12 counterpart is still dragging its feet and trying to find wings to fly. Not much progress has been made when it comes to using technology to teach kids who are still in school, because of a number of reasons. It’s not that schools are not capable of getting the technology or implementing it; more often than not, it’s the finances and effort that throw a spanner in the works. If we take a closer look at online K-12 education, we see that the setbacks to its success are:
- Lack of funding: Schools must be provided with the money needed to set up online labs that cater to the provision of online education, if not for all subjects, then at least for a few of them. It will allow students who are forced to miss one or more terms of school to catch up and earn the credits they need to move on to college and also give children the chance to learn how to use technology in the pursuit of learning.
- Reluctance of teachers to use the technology: Teachers are used to doing things a certain way, and when the status quo changes, they are not too happy. They feel that it is too much of a bother to learn how to use the technology and move from their tried and tested methods into the online world of education. They are also not comfortable dealing with unknown faces behind the anonymity of computers and prefer the classroom atmosphere where they are able to interact with students face to face.
- Fear of the unknown: Some teachers don’t bother to even try to understand technology because they are scared that they won’t be able to grasp its nuances and intricacies. They feel that as long as they stay away from it, they don’t have to answer awkward questions and attempt to understand what they don’t like or accept.
- Lack of expertise in designing online courses: And finally, schools are not equipped with the right people to design courses that are meant to be taught online. They either don’t know or they don’t make the effort to create courses that are specific to online learning.
In spite of these setbacks, those who have tried online education at the school level testify to its efficacy in improving the learning process and in whetting the student’s appetite for more.
Adrienne welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: adrienne.carlson83@yahoo.com
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Virtual School Meanderings 
The future is probably in virtual schools. Students don’t really need to go to a central location they can work at home, etc. They have to be at a central location for the public school to be paid.
We run a small private school in Florida and we use the Florida Virtual School on a part time basis for some of our students. We get excellent results, fortunately non of our virtual school students have been shot, bullied, or any other disturbance that is prevelant in the public schools.
The FL legislature required all public schools to offer a full time virtual school option. They are by and large using the Florida Virtual School, some of the public schools are using other virtual schools. FLVS is paid only for student’s who complete the course and get a passing grade. A requirement that should be applied to all public schools, however, I forgot the public school is a baby sitting service, guess that is why there are no requirements for any student to pass a course when in public school. Only parents can be penalized for failing a student by not getting them to school. Some wise person once said, you can sit in a chicken house as long as you like but it won’t make you a chicken. Same is true, they cannot learn wisdom by setting in a public school.
Comment by unclebuck941 — October 12, 2009 @ 12:08 pm |
My children love virtual school. We are advocating to bring it to Maryland !! I think that we need to inform the public about this possible option.
Comment by virtualparent — October 12, 2009 @ 7:47 pm |
It can be quite useful for some students VirtualParent, and I’m glad that your children are included in that group. The problem is that we haven’t figured out how to design and delivery it so it is accessible to all students.
Comment by mkbnl — October 12, 2009 @ 7:50 pm
While I don’t disagree with Adrienne Carlson, I would add one more key barrier, at least in many states, is state policy. There are far too many states where the educational policy tries to apply regulations that might make sense for a traditional class room environment, to the online classroom.
The other thing that I would add is that despite the barriers, I would say that K-12 online learning is being remarkably successful. It is just in the very early stages of adoption.
Comment by Matthew Wicks — October 12, 2009 @ 6:04 pm |
Thanks for the comments UncleBuck941… I have to be honest and say that I disagree with the notion that the future of education lies in virtual schooling. I think there is a segment of the student population that is not well served by virtual schooling, at least how it is currently designed and delivered. Having said that, I do believe that it holds great potential for many different students within the system.
In terms of your other comments, I think that your belief that “the public school is a baby sitting service” I believe is short-sighted and insulting to the hundreds of thousands of teachers out there that are toiling away with less and less resources, but more and more demanded of them. I’m not sure where this notion that seems to be prevalent in the United States that all students must succeed, but it does seem to have misled many folks into the notion that public schools are somehow failing students. If you go from country to country, you’ll find an education system where some students pass and some students fail. Why folks in the United States had the audacity to believe that all students should or must pass, I’ll never understand. I suppose if you do what some states do, when you have standards that students can’t meet you just eliminate the standard, then maybe every student will succeed – but what will that do for American competitiveness? The countries that the United States are trying to catch up with, at least in terms of educational performance, all have systems which are quite competitive and students do fail. Then again, this is quite typical of the attitude I would expect from someone coming from a private school environment, where socio-economic status has more to do with success than any other variable.
Matt, I’m with you in that I don’t necessarily disagree with Adrienne, I’m not sure I agree with everything she has to say either. Being in a state where schools are struggling to figure out how to offer an online learning experience for each student (as it is a graduation requirement), I see many of these barriers. The one that sticks out the most to me is how to do the online experience to qualify those lower performing students for graduation.
Comment by mkbnl — October 12, 2009 @ 7:48 pm |
I am glad you disagree. Al Shanker who is supposed to have founded the American Federation of Teachers said that if a foreign power imposed our education system upon us we would declare war.
You must go back to John Dewey and his cronies to see how and why public schools were started. That was in Mass. in the 1800’s when the Irish came from the potato famine. Their employers didn’t like their attitudes. John Dewey, Horace Mann, and their collaborators were hired by business people in Mass. to indoctrinate the second generation because the first generation Irish would not follow directions.
One of the prime purposes of the public school is to train compliant workers.
Comment by unclebuck941 — October 12, 2009 @ 8:38 pm |
I don’t disagree that the education system currently in place was designed largely for industrial production. I do disagree with the notion that all students can and should succeed. This notion that all students who pass, all students should graduate from high school, and all students should go to college is one of the root problems with higher education today (and I would argue with the American work force). Youth today expect to succeed with little or no effort, simply because they are told from birth they are so special (see my most recent rant about this at Online Learning & Dual Credit: A Case Of “I Don’t Want To Grow Up”?).
I also agree with Shanker’s comments. In the United States, we punished schools financially – and by extension teachers and students – because of poor test results. We fund schools that need the most resources the least because they are located in areas that have low property values (and if you want to see the problem with this, read “No Dentist Left Behind”). We remove supports from teachers and continue to expect them to do more with less. We decrease the number of teachers, which increases class sizes so students have less individual attention. And I could go on and on. There is a reason why the vast majority of children end up in the same socio-economic status as their parents in the United States. The K-12 system perpetuates the current class system. The American dream is simply a myth. The students at your private school will die having lived in the same upper middle class and upper class tax brackets they were born into. In the same way the students born into poverty in Detroit, where my university is located, will spend their lives in poverty. The reason… Your students (or their parents) can afford to provide them with advantage, whereas the students where my university is located can’t.
BTW, I think you’ve incorrectly placed Dewey in your list – as if you read any of Dewey’s work he would not like the education system that developed over the twentieth century.
Comment by mkbnl — October 12, 2009 @ 9:03 pm
Setbacks In Online K-12 Education…
It’s something of an anomaly that while adult online education has taken off like a rocket, its K-12 counterpart is still dragging its feet and trying to find wings to fly. Not much progress has been made when it comes to using technology to teach kid…
Trackback by Teaching and Developing Online — October 28, 2009 @ 9:31 am |