Effectiveness of Distance Learning

• Ellis, Ken, dir. Online Learning: West Virginia Virtual School. http://www.edutopia.org/. N.p, 2005. Web. 18 Apr. 2010.
  

• This video is about middle schoolers in West Virginia who are taking a Distance Learning Course in Spanish because there are not enough qualified teachers in the area who can be hired in at their school. Joyce McClanahan is a virtual schoolteacher who works from home and is the head teacher in twenty one different Spanish classes in fifteen West Virginia middle schools. She teaches forty five minute classes in which she communicates with the class through a two way phone call. The class listens as she lectures and there is a faculty member in the room to oversee everything.

• When the class is not listening to Mrs. McClanahan they complete activities, modules and quizzes online. Although she does not meet the students face to face they communicate through phone calls (also out of class individual calls), recorded emails and regular emails. The students go home to work on their assignments and if they have questions they have the opportunity to call and ask. The recorded emails allow the teacher to evaluate the students' pronunciation and listen to any errors that are occurring in speech.

• I think for a school that had to resort to a Distance Learning Program for such a difficult subject as Spanish, technology has served them well. I think that the recorded emails are a great tool for distance learning and are greatly impacting the level of teaching Mrs. McClanahan is reaching.