Online Schools Becoming More Popular, Despite Union Resistance

Townhall.com ^ | October 2, 2012 | Kyle Olsen

[Kaslin]

Enrollment in online schools has increased twelvefold in Ohio since the first internet-based school was created in the state in 2000, The Gazette Medina reports.

More than 30,000 students are currently enrolled, most of them concentrated in seven statewide cyber schools. Only Arizona had more students in online schools, according to the news report.

Online schools, and other forms of digital learning, are an inevitable and promising form of education for the 21st Century, unless special interest forces are able to keep technology from becoming more integrated into everyday education.

Professor Gary Miron of the National Education Policy Center is a leading voice for those special interests, which include teachers unions and the education establishment in general. He suggested that online schools in Ohio may not be properly serving their students due to a lack of state regulation.

“Miron … said Ohio has fewer requirements for online schools than most other states. He cited items like financial reporting, student-to-teacher ratios, and how long students have to stay in a school or pass state tests in order for schools to receive state money,” the newspaper reported.

And?

Miron states those facts as if they’re negatives. Toledo schools may have more “financial reporting,” but does that make them better? The Columbus teachers’ contract may mandate “student-to-teacher ratios,” but does that make the most sense? The state may dictate how long some students must stay in school, but is that always in the best interest of students?

The educational establishment prefers more regulation for alternative school choice options, presumably to make them less attractive to students and families.

The National Education Association – the teachers union that funds Miron’s opinions – wants a one-size-fits-all, government-run monopoly where kids are assigned to schools based on where they live, regardless of that school’s performance. Union leaders don’t want options for parents. They don’t want competition from for-profit operators because they know they’ll lose business.

But competition is what they’re getting. Now that Ohio has lifted the cap on the number of online schools, watch for even more students to exercise their newfound freedom, which is the American way.

[pops88]

“helicoptering my skyboard”

To clarify that, thats when you’re upside down, spiraling out of control toward the ground because your skyboard is spinning. Skydivivng isn’t that dangerous a sport, yet I’ve lost untold numbers of compadres, probably because it attracts type T (thrill seeker) personalities that want to push the envelope. I was always a “safety girl” to quote “Pretty Woman” even if I did some out there things.

[Vendome]

More specifically heli-boarding.

Before spending the last 6 years taking care of a friend I use to snowboard 50-70 days a years.

I was in Chile at a place Valle Nevado and a friend convinced me to take a helicopter up to 15,000 feet and jump out onto a ledge.

From there we made our way back down to the lodge.

Loved it and got hooked. Not so much for danger but because I was doing something fun that most others won’t do.

Kewel factor.

Kinda like the time I rode the helicopter for avalanche patrol and the guy who was in charge of avaalanche, Bib(I guess that’s how it’s spelled) is some dude from France.

Well, in France they smoke, a lot and this guy is sitting next to a crate of dynamite smoking.

I’m nervous.

So he eyes a spot where he can create a controlled avalanche and he grabs a stick of dynamite and lights the damn thing with his cigarette.

^((*&)(&()*)((()!!!!!!!!

And he tosses it out at where this avalanche should be.

Boom! and sure enough a bunch of snow cascades down the side of the mountain.

So I start laughing really loud, because that was hilarious!

So we fly around to another spot and he hands me a stick of dynamite and says “Ear, you vunt to trrry?”.

I’m like...???

Well, I figured the pilot and he knew what they were doing so I asked him where it need to go, he points, I let him light it and I toss...Boom! Big grin and laughing.

He did one more and then we went and had breakfast with his very sexy wife and beautiful baby boy.

So I don’t want to go up skydiving and do anything stoopid, mostly just jump and land...safely.

If I start liking it I’ll take lessons from the really good guys on whatever advanced skydiving is suppose to be and I don’t know what that is but, it’ll probably be fun.

[Vendome]

They do some pretty damn amazing surgeries these days.

Expensive though but, they can fix just about anything now.

Way kewel to meet a woman who skyboarded. I think that would be something I’d learn after I got several jumps under my belt.

[Jacquerie]

Imagine if the last five generations had been taught to love and cherish our republic rather than despise it.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

There’s a place for online schools, but I like the structure and the organization of traditional classrooms.

It is good to be forced to meet at a certain time or place to study a subject intensely for an hour. It is a plus to have a knowledge area expert leading and explaining.

I’ve tried both, and I definitely prefer the traditional format.

I can relate to the point that if you don’t have a schedule, you won’t match the performance of those who do. It’s the whole “Failing to plan is planning to fail” thing. OTOH there is the concept of “flipping the classroom” advocated by Salmon Khan. That is, free online lectures and online drill-and-practice can replace in-class lectures and textbooks, allowing students to use the classroom strictly for direct interaction with the teacher and other competency models, and thereby meet, and be challenged to surpass, scheduled learning. If a student is behind, staying in lockstep with the class is pure stress, and less productive than catching up from where you actually are would be. So the fixed schedule of a classroom has inherent drawbacks.

If you check out khanacademy.org you’ll see why I might think Salman Khan deserves a Nobel Prize (assuming that’s still an honor).

[xzins]

I would love for online education to surpass the traditional for the sole purpose of recapturing the education institution from liberalism. It provides the best opportunity to do so through classes offered by such schools as Hillsdale.

However, the strength of the traditional method is presence. Presence is such a great advantage. It gives everything from camraderie to esprit de corps to direct interaction to structure and organization.

Online must find a way to match or exceed those. I like your idea of online having the advantage of catalogued lectures/lessons one can use to catch up or forge ahead. That is a strength of online.

I’m thinking that something like “go to meeting.com” would be a work around. There’d have to be some real means of instructer observation of real-time student work. There’d be a means of questioning, give-and-take. Students must be able to immediately and completely view any work the teacher wants to do on chart, whiteboard, etc.

[PrincessB]

The bulk of my master’s degree was taken in a hybrid format. We had a once a month face to face 1/2 day seminar/discussion and everything else was done on-line.

I wanted to take an additional course and it was structured in the traditional format. I dropped after the first day as it looked like a complete waste of time for the material presented.

There is a lot of value in face to face group learning, especially in subjects that could use more immediate feedback and structure like grammar, basic math, and music.

[pops88]

That’s some story!

[wastedyears]

That definitely is a good thing to know. Maybe after I get the bad gland removed from my neck, my IQ will improve a little bit.

[wastedyears]

There is a lot of value in face to face group learning, especially in subjects that could use more immediate feedback and structure like grammar, basic math, and music.

I completely agree with these, especially with music for personal reasons.

[Mama Shawna]

I also think this is the wave of the future. My son JUST TODAY, is starting his first of two on-line classes offered in his High School. He is the first, and so far only, student in the entire school to take advantage of this. I use the Khan Academy extensively, which I found out about right here at Free Republic!

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I would love for online education to surpass the traditional for the sole purpose of recapturing the education institution from liberalism. It provides the best opportunity to do so through classes offered by such schools as Hillsdale.

However, the strength of the traditional method is presence. Presence is such a great advantage. It gives everything from camraderie to esprit de corps to direct interaction to structure and organization.

Online must find a way to match or exceed those. I like your idea of online having the advantage of catalogued lectures/lessons one can use to catch up or forge ahead. That is a strength of online.

I’m thinking that something like “go to meeting.com” would be a work around. There’d have to be some real means of instructer observation of real-time student work. There’d be a means of questioning, give-and-take. Students must be able to immediately and completely view any work the teacher wants to do on chart, whiteboard, etc.

Essentially that is the origin of the Khan Academy. Khan started out tutoring his young cousin interactively using the phone for voice and the internet for transmitting his writing/drawing to illustrate his meaning. It was only when his success at that led to “demand” from more and more cousins, overburdening his spare time, that Khan resorted to posting video lectures on YouTube. And when unrelated individuals found his YouTube lectures and began effusively thanking him for posting them, Khan threw up his hands and began making the lectures full time, on faith that the money would somehow work out.

That was before he got a call from an employee of a well-known corporation, telling him that his boss loved the lectures and wanted to talk to him. And asking if he would have time to talk to Bill Gates . . .

There’s quite a lot to khanacademy.org. You would enjoy the site if you haven’t yet reviewed it.

[1010RD]

Exactly. Until you break the government’s monopoly on what constitutes an “education” we’re just trading masters.