I was pondering over this idea of educational technology today and I started to think about distance learning. In one of my interviews I was asked if I would like to become a distance learning teacher, or whatever they call it. At the time I was thinking, how can I say NO nicely? Now, I think that it would be a pretty neat experience, or definitely a huge learning experience. The only thing that I really have against distance learning or online learning schools is that you never have that personal connection or interaction with the students. You would never know just who that student was, what they looked like, what they enjoyed doing, what are the best teaching strategies you could use to motivate them to learn, etc. I think these are all important things to know when you are a teacher and I do not think these connections would be made over the Internet, especially when students are in middle years or high school.
I think that many distant learning programs are set up for correspondence classes that you may take in University, but I can imagine that there is an increase in using distance learning in the elementary or high schools systems as well. Some possible benefits of distance learning might be:
§ Accelerated learning programs – students who are gifted, probably at the high school level, could use this technology to take some university classes that are offered online to begin working towards a degree in their desired program area.
§ For students who are sick – if students need to stay at home or are in the hospital but can still do some school work it would be beneficial to set up a learning program for them online. This program would have to be more than email between teacher and student/parents.
§ Any student who has to work at home for any reason.
I would think that some parents would choose online learning schools for their children if they wanted to home school them. If you want to learn more about one online learning school that offers a variety of courses for grade 4 – 12 students, as well as adults you can check out St. Paul’s Academy: http://www.redeemer.ab.ca/spa/html/index.htm. This school is part of Christ the Redeemer Catholic Schools. Does anyone know if there is such a thing like this in Saskatchewan?
~Linsey~
