Week 12: Distance Education and creating a professional web presence

This week we learned about distance education. Distance education is provided through the use of technology to teach students who are not physically in the classroom. It can be done in a number of ways including email, internet, tv broadcastor by mobile access which is done on a wireless device. Online education means that the teacher and student(s) are separated by time and space but are able to discuss topics through online discussion forums, phone or email. There are many advantages to distance eduaction. One of them is that students can work at their own pace. This is important because some students may feel overwhlemed in a typical school setting, and may do better when able to work at their own pace. DE also allows adults to go back to school while taking classes around their work schedules. It also gives more people access to information that they may not have available to them at their school. It also has its disadvantages though. A major one is cost (some can be quite expensive). Another is that students must be highly motivated since they are not expected to physically show up to a classroom and therefore do things around their schedule. Attendance and participation is hard to do and there is a lack of personal contact between the students and the teacher.

In Florida, an online school called Florida virtual school was created. Teachers are accessible from 7:30 in the morning until 8:00 at night and on the weekends. Each month they are also expected to make a phone call to the parents of the students. Assessments and worksheets are typical types of work that are given to students along with exams that usually count for most of the grade. There are also online discussion forums where students are expected to participate and they can ask questions or work together on a project. Virtual schools are increasing but since they are still so new we don't yet know what makes a good online instructor, so there are still many aspects that need to be worked out.

As a future teacher, it is good for me to know about all the options available to students. It may be something to consider as well. It would allow me to live anywhere and still be able to teach. It's also important to learn about the improvements that are made to virtual schools because some of the teaching strategies may be able to transfer to the classroom.

Here is a video about distance education. It's a little long, but I thought it highlighted some important concepts about it:
Distance Education: The challenges and benefits