Blog Post 13 - Option 2

To be completely honest, the article My Teacher Is An App scared me a little bit. I rather doubt that was the writer's intention, but reading about the online schooling did manage to freak me out a little bit. The article discussed, in great detail, the positives and negatives of online schooling. While in some cases, standardized test scores were well below the average and the drop-out rate was higher than with traditional schooling. On the other hand, it was a great tool for students who progress faster and do not have the means of attending a school that can suit them without holding them back. The best case was with the mother who had a kindergartner that could already would and would be challenged in his classroom, because he'd be helping the other children to read. She opted for online schooling and the child is excelling now. Then you have the case of the child at the beginning, who got bored easily and opted to wait until he felt like doing his homework to work on it. Just like with every scenario, there is an upside and downside; the challenge is finding a happy medium.

I can see the benefits of online schooling, really I can. It's cheaper, saves resources, and parents are more in tune with what their child is learning. All of these things were discussed in the iSchool Initiative video we watched for Blog Post 5. It really is a fantastic idea, however, I do not support the idea of fully online learning. Maybe it is just me, but being on a computer all day actually hurts my head and eventually, I get bored. Also, you have to take into account that some kids will wait until the last possible second to get things done. In my opinion, no real learning is going on with them just breezing through the assignments and what they need to read/listen to. Also, it would also take a great amount of discipline to be able to sit in front of a computer and only think about school work or that lecture you didn't bother to listen to the day before, but really need to do so. I think for online learning to be completely successful, it needs to be both in the classroom and online. That's what we are essentially learning now, isn't it? Call me old-fashioned, but I like the feel of the classroom setting and everything that comes with it. However, I do know that change is inevitable and eventually, the education system will be altered. This not only will happen, but it has to if we want our children to be successful. While I may not like online classes for myself as a student, (because I know how easy they are to forget about) sometimes it is better for people to learn that way. Just because we do not like something, doesn't mean we should deny other people from learning in a way they are comfortable with.