Virtual Education

What is Virtual Education?

Virtual education refers to instruction in a learning environment where teacher and student are separated by time or space, or both, and the teacher provides course content through course management applications, multimedia resources, the Internet, videoconferencing, etc. ...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_education

Virtual education in elementary, middle, and secondary grades are becoming more and more prominent in many states across the U.S.

Online education provides:

Opportunities for students to take classes they previously were unable due to time conflict, busy schedule, illness, and etc.

Enables gifted and talented students to expand their education and challenge themselves more.

Allows rural communities around the world to also expand their education and virtually see and learn about other parts of the world.

Virtual Education also…

Is an alternative to students who have a difficult time in the conventional school setting due to behavioral problems, ADD/ADHD, victims of bullying, and being ostracized by their peers.

Gives students valuable time to concentrate on their interests/hobbies because a day in a virtual school is 3-4 hours instead of the conventional 8-hour school day.

Less known facts on VS

A critical element to VS is an in-school mentor

VS is now offered as young as kindergarten

Many virtual classes are still subject to standardized testing

Many virtual classes still get hands on experience

What kind of hands on experience?

http://ctlt.iastate.edu/~tegivs/TEGIVS/Gail-Wortmann/Q4.swf

Pros of VS for students

Students can work at their own pace

Students learn to become more independent and responsible for their work and success

Caters to students who travel or have special needs

Can provide more advanced classes to students who would benefit from those options

Pros of VS for teachers

Can provide jobs for teachers without classrooms

Allows for more flexibility

Gives teachers an opportunity to learn more technology and means of communication

Allows teachers to better communicate and form relationships with students

Cons of VS for students

The students could fall behind if they are not self motivated enough

Less hands on experience (although some is included as explained previously)

Could take away from social interactions so other forms of social interaction are needed (similar to home schooling)

Severe eye strain

Cons of VS for teachers

Very demanding job because of the high need for communication

Must be very organized in order to be successful

Severe eye strain

In conclusion…

There are pros and cons to VS so in order to see if it would work for you or your child, be sure to do quality research and find out what VS has to provide