Journal 8

Article: “Virtual Schooling” from Learning and Leading with Technology
By Niki Davis and Dales S. Niederhauser

If you think that Virtual Schooling is simply reading some online material and taking a multiple choice test at the end, think again. For K-12 Virtual Schooling there are lots of people involved in the process and lots of support for the student. This is a fully supported function of many schools now according to this article. In fact, the phenomenon is growing very fast, 100 % between 2005 and 2006!

Question 1: How many people are involved in delivering k-12 Virtual Schooling to students?
First of all there’s a real teacher at one end and real remote schools for the real students. Also at the remote school is a support person called an IT specialist for technical details. Then there’s anther support person at the remote school to interface with the students and their parents.

Question 2: How does a teacher run a virtual class?
The main ingredients are usually an online learning management software system and the Internet. Sometimes TV broadcasting or teleconferencing is used also. The learning management software is sometimes WebCT, our old friend! The students do a lot of self study, of course, using an online textbook and other online sources. The learning management software is used for asynchronous communications such as submitting assignments, discussion boards, and e-mail.