Online Schooling

Tonight, in Technology and Topics, we had an online class. I enjoyed it a lot. One problem I had was that my chat scroll got stuck and so for the last half of class I wasn't seeing the new chat messages. I realized this at the end of class and then spent 20 minutes reading over what I had missed. I was wondering why everyone had stopped talking!

Online schooling is becoming more common and I have taken multiple college courses which had an inclusion of online classes.

Three advantages to online schooling are it promotes independent learning, can help students with certain disabilities, and it increases a student's technological skill. Many times an online class will have elements of independent study. In my experience, this can mean anything from an independent study of a given powerpoint to an actual online lesson program. I took a math class where the textbook included a program that gave lessons and quizzes and even allowed the quiz results to be emailed to the professor. In addition there are some students with disabilities that make it difficult for them to leave the house (such as an agoraphobia). Online schooling as an option will keep these students from falling behind. I also like how (in our class chat tonight) someone mentioned the possibility of online school on snow days. Also, in the time we live in, education needs to look at teaching students skills using a wide variety of computerized technology. Online schooling can assist with the increase in a students computer skills.

Three disadvantages to online schooling are the lack of face-to-face human interaction, zero/low teacher interaction, and potential for a student to get confused with no way to get help. Online schooling could be detrimental to the students' social skills by keeping them from interacting with other people face-to-face. Some online classes are self-directed (as discussed above) and this could lead to a lack of interaction with a teacher. Without this teacher interaction the student will not be able to ask questions they may have or get one-on-one time with the teacher to discuss questions and the topic. Also, if a student does get confused during online schooling they may have more difficulty in finding a way to get help.