Exploring High School English Online

Today I was able to sit down and enter the online interface of an actual virtual school Senior English class. This was just hours after I had received a memo from our school principal regarding budget cuts and measures we are to take "immediately" to help reduce operating costs. Among those items were two that caught my immediate interest, they were "shut off computers when not in use" and "limit copies to tests/exams only." Because I live and work in Florida, where the state revenue has been sharply decreased by the economic downturn and because of a property tax "relief" plan that saves the average homeowner $20 per month, but costs state-funded organizations, services and local governments millions, our school district's budget is seeing over $800,000 less this next fiscal year.

It may seem odd that I digress into our budget "crisis," but it framed my thinking while interacting with the online course. While exploring the curriculum, materials, links, and resources, including real-time chat, I found myself contemplating how efficient it was. All of the text, graphics, resources, are digitally produced. I don't know too much about operating costs for each of the courses and the virtual school's overall budget for overhead, but I have to figure that it is cheaper than what many of the costs are for traditional schooling. The students in the class have immediate access to all of the resources they need to complete the work without it going anywhere near a Xerox machine (score one for teachers and students). I'm sure the teachers aren't told that they can't print and copy resources that aren't tests or exams.

The exams and tests are all Web-based and can be taken via point, click and type, and provide immediate feedback for both the student and teachers. There is no tedious hours of grading manually, fumbling with papers, flipping pages, referring to a key, organizing and filing stacks, and on and on. For standard assessments in particular to me it seems that the virtual school's method of record keeping is safer, more secure and far more efficient for all parties involved.

Now, going back to my earlier point regarding turning off computers when not in use at my school struck me as meaning that they are extraneous items at our school. I feel like if more instruction is to include interacting and learning with technology regularly, as it should, there is nary a time the computers should be turned off, save overnight I suppose. But then there is the need for teachers to come in each day and reboot their computers and those that the students might use. How much power does a computer use in sleep mode anyway? Again, exploring the virtual school class made me think about how the computer is a primary tool for learning, not the physical structures that cost so much to construct, operate and maintain. How much cheaper would it be to build more computer labs and instead of more traditional class space to "stick bodies"? My school doesn't even currently have a computer lab open to all teachers, and no, we don't have laptops for student use instead.

Finally, I took my time to explore the curriculum of the virtual school's Senior English class, and compared to that of my own school. There were many similarities, however, the virtual class did many of the things I have expressed an interest in adding to our own school's official curriculum, some of which I do on my own, regardless of our "scope and sequence." What I liked best about the virtual school's curriculum was its relevance to the outside world after high school graduation. It has the student's explore desirable job skills, look at the military, colleges, and career training options, and a brief Senior Project, not the punishing year-long version some of the instructors at my school hold on to with fitful fervor. This was mixed in with the traditional literature studies and grammar and writing skills.

Interestingly, I found that Honors coursework was available for students who desired to take on additional work and wanted to challenge themselves further, but otherwise the students were all in the same class together and were asked in many assignments to respond to the work of their classmates. This is much different from the system of Honors, AP and Regular course levels offered in my traditional school, which is often socioeconomically derivative and perpetuated.

Overall, I was impressed with the quality and breadth of the virtual school's interface and curriculum, however, I could see how students could easily get behind who weren't self-motivated. Additionally, I was especially glad to see that differentiated instruction was available and liked how most of the course topics had lead-in assignments that helped to build background knowledge and frame thinking. Further, alternative and traditional assessments were present, as well as enrichment activities that might further enhance student learning. The only thing I found to be perhaps in need of revision, in my opinion, is that some of the questions for discussion groups were too simplistic, but I suppose that might be intentional to allow students to have a more open range of responses with and amongst each other.

My initial impression of this online virtual school high school English class is obviously positive, however, I still have yet to see how students interact in real-time with each other and their teacher, in addition to reading and viewing their actual submitted work. That will come next. Check back to find out about that experience. Different blog time, same blog channel.