Wave of the future.

Will it be “……the wave of the future? Absolutely not. Will it add another tool in some parents vast collection of tools that are instrumental in making additional knowledge available to students. Yes, it will.

Of course input equals output, less what is lost in translation. If the “courses” are correctly crafted, they will be a valuable resource to home schooled students, as well as any other student who who is conscientious.

Now, what will be the necessary qualifications of a “Instructor”? Will it be a degree in education? If so, all is lost. You’ll find them in public schools made of brick and mortar.

This system, using qualified people to teach, is already being used by adults to teach each other. I’ll give an example. In a cooking forum that I frequent from time to time, some ladies lamented that they would like to learn how to pressure can foods. They had nobody to teach them. I volunteered. 12 women bought pressure canners, and over a 12 week course I taught them how to can foods safely. That was some 8 years ago, and they
are canning safely and teaching others. I used a lesson plan, pictures, that I posted, plus recipes….all on the computer. Classes were on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 2 hours each night.

I have never had a cooking course or a canning course in my life!!

My point is that another method of selecting instructors must be developed. A teaching degree is inadequate to teach on a computer.

Finally ! the good sense to, hopefully, reduce the number of incompetent teachers.

This is great! Now they can go straight from their school work to their video games without having to leave the chair or actally have to interact with any living soul. This is bad news for bus companies and shoe manufacturers…

I like the online idea for supplemental education. I am not sure how I feel about the entire experience online. Mostly because it would be lacking the social interaction of the brick and mortar education. The one big plus of traditional school is the social education. However, an entire experience may be needed for those who are ill, injured, troubled, overseas with parents, etc.

As stated, colleges have managed to offer entire degree programs online. Some are good, some are degree mills. DESE would do well to consult the state universitites and community colleges to see how to ensure quality. Quality to me goes beyond teacher qualifications (though I find it humorous that some have taken the opportunity to bash the profession), but also addresses how to ensure that the work is truly that of the student, lessons on information literacy, etc.

Since some have brought up instructor qualifications, and having taken many college-level online courses, I can speak from the student perspective. Yes, an online teacher should be more than the run-of-the-mill “certified” teacher–but certification should be the minimum requirement. They must be able to think outside of the box and create lessons that are student-driven. They should be able to tranform the online experience into truly educational. They must be able generate quality online “class discussion”. It should be more than a correspondence course (read text, answer questions) on the computer.

I always love the “Experts.” Who are these people? Are these people the NEA members who are afraid for their jobs? Why is it that parents supposedly cannot make it in life without a “certified” teacher?

We have been home schooling for years and use many online programs. We also teach her the subjects that the schools refuse to teach or at least teach honestly. We don’t worry about teachers infecting our child with theories of man-made global warming, anti conservative rhetoric, or many other subjects that so many of these teachers tend to brainwash children with.

Online schooling is terrific! There are no bullies to worry about. There are no bad teachers to avoid. There is no traffic jam to worry about. You actually have a choice in what your child is learning and how they learn it. Unlike what many of you think home schooling, kids are out and about and have plenty of social events. It’s too bad that union teachers are so frightened for their jobs that they are more interested in saving their jobs then educating our children. It’s time to get out of the stone age of education and become more responsible for teaching our children. That doesnt mean that public education should be dead but I sure hope this is a wake up call for many who are tired of the failing school systems. Perhaps the competition will “enlighten” the current failing system.

While on-line distribution of knowledge would enable equity and easy access to all students and probably provide high-quality content, before we implement any similar program we need to seriously address how our current teachers will be instructed to master the unique communication skills and pedagogy required for on-line instruction (where’s the eye contact, body language?), how to address differing student populations,etc. A classroom teacher in Manhattan may consider using a different example/reference to clarify a theory than a teacher in the Bronx may consider using.

I believe there is an intrinsic value to traditional school attendance that transcends book learning; band, orchestra, football, debate, day-to-day contact with friends–it’s all positive socialization that could easily be denied most virtual and home-schooled students.

Robert Frost said “Education is hanging around until you’ve caught on.” I wonder if this opportunity would exist in the virtual classroom.

Bad idea. Kids need school to learn social skills as much as academic skills. A teacher is a person dedicated to education of children. A parent is a person dedicated to their children. There is a difference. A parent lacks in the capability to be honest and judge there children when it comes to achievement. They are partial when it comes to their kids feelings. Why not let your kids get out in the world and find out that there are other things going on. Some of the things you might want to protect them from but it is not going to happen forever. Kids need to learn who they like and who they don’t. I child is an individual (a product of their parents but not their parents) who need to learn to adjust to life situations. It’s hard to do that in front of a computer all day long.

I think it’s misleading to call MoVIP “free.” There is no such thing as a free ride when it comes to state sponsored programs. I’m paying for it, you’re paying for it, every tax payer in the state is picking up the tab.

Well Ryan, apparently you haven’t been in the schools lately. I have an 11 year old daughter that runs circles around traditional school children. Guess what? We dont have to force or control her to make her do things when it comes to education. She is so motivated to do it on her on. School can me son non-motivating in many circumstances. We force our children to learn things that absolutely useless for the rest of their lives. So many government educated school kids are so unequipped when they leave government schools that we have to re-educate them again. Unfortunately, we have so many people walking around this world who have no idea what to do on a daily basis and those people depend on the government to take care of them.

Tom, please tell me what social skills my daughter is missing. Would it be the lack of education on how to take drugs or would it be the sexual permissiveness that is going on in the schools? Why is it that so many of you in-the-box government school advocates that think that you must force children to be put into circumstances that you avoid on a daily basis? So, is what you are saying is to put children into unbelievable positions to learn how to cope? If that is the case, then who is teaching them what to do when those circumstances come up? You obviously arent there when they have to make a decision so I guess you want a teacher to do your job? What is it with this forcing our children to learn social situations that they many times aren’t ready to cope with?

Maybe you are right. Let’ force our kids into these situations. Let’s make them deal with other parent’s problems. Let’s bitch and moan when the teacher isn’t protecting them. Let’s forget the real point of schools which is to educate. Why don’t we just put these kids in social systems and educate them at home. Would that make you happy?

My question to parents is why do you put your kids into unbearable situations that you yourself would never want to be a part of? In the mean time, we will continue to lock our daughter in her closet and throw her a piece of meat occasionally. Isn’t that what many of you knuckleheads think? You talk about not having a clue!