Online School?

The state department of education has provided funding for an experimental online school. All of the classes will take place on the internet using email,online chat, and the world wide wed. The students taking classes at this new online school will never meet each other face-to-face . Do you think that 6th,7th,and 8th grade students should or shouldn't attend school online.

Online School?
School is really about the interaction between teacher and student, as well as student and student. A lot is lost in translation. It's just harder to learn when you're not receiving the individual attention (from a teacher or peers) that a classroom can provide.





Sixth to eighth grade is also a really important time for socialization. I think the kids would miss out on a very necessary stage of becoming a teenager.
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Reply:One of my four children is using an online school and I also teach a wide variety of online classes to homeschoolers using a combination of a live, online classroom where we all meet at a designated time to activities run through our assynchronous Moodle site/





I think that the assumption that the students will no have interaction may be unfounded. Charters and virtuals do vary from one another, but most make a huge effort on the social side of things.





Our virtual has more than one fieldtrip per month where the children get to explore together. Our virtual uses Elluminate quite regularly and I also use Elluminate daily in my own online classes.





The students and teacher are actually together at the same time in the online classroom with lots of social tools such as webcam; text messaging; full duplex audio; emoticon system to communicate confusion, applause, agreement, hand raise, and 'stepped away'; a well-tooled whiteboard system. The online classroom has application sharing so I often run a program on my computer and them all work together on it. An example is an educational adventure game called Chemicus. It is a Myst-like game in which the students must use chemistry knowledge to solve a much bigger story. They work as a team and make group decisions to solve the chemical puzzles. We have video-based labs in which the students can record their labs on video and play them in the online classroom or upload them to the website for me to grade off-line. We can do virtual, interactive labs together in the classrom as a team as well.





We also run an assynchronous website for homework assignments, testing, forum discussions, wiki creation, and just goofing off together when not in the online classroom.





They also can use the Cmap system as a study group tool where they can work together to create concept maps of what they are studying in class and return to it together or independently for preparing for tests. The Cmap is really cool. You actually can see everyone's concept boxes and links appearing and moving around as the class builds it. The Cmap has a built in text chat, but the kids usually use Yahoo Messenger voice so they can hear each other or use the Elluminate online classroom and application sharing to work together. Best of all, I can log on to their Cmap and see where they may be missing or have a concept connection wrong. It is a way for me to sort of 'see into their brains' to see what they retained and if they understand the relationships well.





I always schedule in time for visiting at the begining of class time for those who log in on time and if we finish early I have loads of whiteboard games that the kids freely go to to play together. They chose the games and go to the screens and just begin a game of Muggins, Battleship, Pente, Mastermind, Boxes, etc. Sometimes the kids just use the game time and the text messaging system to chat a while. As the teacher I can watch any chat or game screen I want to. I can be called on via the mic any time one of the students needs help.





When I look back at how much opportunity I had for socialization in school and what these kids get. I think they are pretty lucky. They really get to know each other well and can be from all different places from all over the world. we have had students from Canada, California, Arkansas, South Carolina, Oregon, and more.
Reply:I do not think that they have the discipline nor the maturity to be successful in online classes unless they are very interactive and exciting. Even though that generation is comfortable with computers, it still takes a lot of discipline and concentration to get through online classes. What's also difficult is many online classes are not designed with their needs in mind. They are just sites with downloadable information and students are to return assignments when complete. I am not sure that online learning has evolved to a point that can hold the interest of middle school students so that most of them can be successful. On the otherhand, if there are opportunities for the students to share face-to-face and to explore through community adventures, and they have support at home, it might work. I am sorry that I am not more optomistic. However, for students who need an alternative setting, this is an option.
Reply:i think they shouldn't attend online school. For 6th, 7th, and 8th class structure is very important for there learning.





why online is not good:


1. mostly likely kids won't do there work and will forget


2. they will not be able to connect with the other kids and teacher


3. Not be able to get a clear answer to there questions


4. Not be able to get good help for something they don't understand