Online Learning is Great for At-Risk Students

With almost five years as a teacher, curriculum developer, and district coordinator of online learning for Garland ISD’s seven high schools, I can say without hesitation that online learning is a perfect medium for my educational philosophy and working with at-risk students.

The areas of interactions (student/lessons, student/peers, and student/teacher) for higher education are the same areas of interaction that must be addressed for on-line learners in middle and high schools, allowing us to teach to the entire child.

Beginning with the curriculum, on-line learning must be engaging, meet district and state educational requirements, challenging, and most importantly to me, success oriented for the students.

The online system purchased by my District was NovaNET. The predeveloped curriculum covered all core areas for middle and high school students and thirty plus electives. Although the packaged or canned curriculum met most states’ basic needs, the curriculum left a lot to be desired for the student/lesson interaction. The even used gopher links to the Internet. The second year a new program was developed allowing users to access direct links to the Internet which made the curriculum more alive.

Another area that was lacking and I didn’t realize it until taking this class, was the necessary interaction of the students with other students. I could interact with them anytime they were online from any computer in the US. I had only to load a program to the PC I was using and I was connected. The students and I could then talk in real time. They loved it. Their need for instant gratification was being served. However, the program offered little in the way of student – student interaction. Towards the end of our use of the program, they had developed an area that students could use to put comments on current events. I don’t remember any opportunity for student to student discussion.

As for Second Life, I have already contacted our technology department to see if they can unblock the site. They didn’t know anything about it but because it has game in the description and it is automatically blocked. I’m hoping they will see the potential benefits of the site and open it up for me to develop online curriculum for my Web Mastering Course.