Virtual Schools

Wood, Christina. "The Virtual Classroom: Online Learning." The George Lucas Foundation. April 2005. Accessed from the Internet on April 18, 2010. http://www.edutopia.org/online-learning-video

The video I accessed pertained to the advantages of Virtual Schools and online learning as it pertains to course quality, closing the digital divide and flexibility in class schedule.

The video begins by stating how the Internet facilitates a whole new world of learning and connecting people and cultures that traditionally had been a world apart.

The Virtual School Academy consists of 300 high school in 16 foreign countries and the United States and offers over 150 different high school courses. It's a non-profit organization that is designed to assist challenged students and also challenge accelerated students. All of the schools combine to provide some form of instruction in the Virtual School.

During the video, a teacher from the Florida Virtual Academy, which began in 2000 and is the oldest virtual academy in the United States, mentioned how virtual academies do a great job of closing the digital divide. Her assertion is that students from rural school districts in Florida do not have the same access to quality instruction compared to their city and suburban counterparts in the state, and virtual academies provide them with that quality instruction that they otherwise would be missing. This theme is also reiterated in video as it examines the role of virtual academies in West Virginia and in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Finally, the video promotes flexibility as another major bonus of virtual schools. Student Zoe McNealy is an excellent ice skater with aspirations to make the Olympic Games. By taking classes through a virtual academy, she is able to create a school day that best suites and works with her rigorous skating schedule. She can make a classroom schedule around her time at the ice rink in order to both maximize on the ice rink and also get the most out of her time in her virtual classroom.

I think this was an excellent video in terms of providing several strong arguments in favor of virtual academies and distance learning. It also was a balanced piece because there is a point in the video when one of the proponents of virtual academies flat out says he would not recommend a student taking his or her complete high school education through a virtual school because he still thinks there are social advantages to a traditional land-locked school that a virtual school can not completely need. He thinks that virtual schools can not completely replace traditional school, but it certainly can enhance the education received at a traditional school.

http://www.edutopia.org/online-learning-video